Prey Selection and Feeding Rates of Drupella cornus (Gastropoda: Muricidae) on Corals from the Jordanian Coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea

Abstract

The corallivorous muricid Drupella cornus represents a potential threat to coral reefs. This study aimed to describe and quantify gazing activity and prey selection by D. cornus on corals from the Jordanian coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. Field observations revealed that D. cornus was mostly found on branching corals such as Acropora sp. and Stylophora sp. with an average of 13.72 ± 7.4 and 9.8 ± 9.2 individuals per colony, respectively, while only 4.0 ± 2.2 individuals per colony were found on the massive coral Porites. Laboratory experiments confirmed our observations in the field in terms of prey selection, where Acropora and Stylophora attracted most D. cornus when several coral species were placed with them in laboratory aquaria. The measured grazing rates of D. cornus were greatly influenced by seawater temperature, increasing by five times at 30oC compared with 18oC i.e., rates of 1.31 ± 0.19 and 0.27 ± 0.11 cm 2 . day -1 individual -1 , respectively. No