Читать книгу Life in the Open Ocean - Joseph J. Torres - Страница 119

Both Porpita and Velella feed on copepods, both cyclopoid and calanoid, with the size of prey increasing with the size of the predator (Table 3.10). In addition, both genera have zooxanthellae, but it is not clear what contribution the symbionts make to their overall nutrition.

Like their (however distant) relatives, the cystonect siphonophores, the chondrophores are ambush predators that move exclusively where the wind carries them, enacting no active pursuit of prey. It is assumed that prey items that blunder into their stinging tentacles are conveyed to the mouth in a way similar to feeding in the siphonophores and medusae.