Vitamin A and carotenoids in certain invertebrates: IV. Mollusca: Loricata, Lamellibranchiata, and Gastropoda

Abstract

Apart from a general account (Kon, 1954) of our work on vitamin A and carotenoids in invertebrates, our publications so far (Kon & Thompson, 1949a, b; Batham, Fisher, Henry, Kon & Thompson, 1951; Fisher, Kon & Thompson, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955) have been concerned only with marine Crustacea. We have also studied, during our investigation of the metabolism of vitamin A and its possible precursors in the sea, numerous species from most other phyla of marine invertebrates. Except for the nematode worm,Anisakis physeterisBaylis, taken from the stomach of a sperm whale, the only two phyla of invertebrate animals in which we have so far found vitamin A are the Arthropoda and the Mollusca. The vitamin was present in at least some species from each of the molluscan classes, Loricata, Gastropoda, Lamellibranchiata and Cephalopoda, but we have no information yet about the Solenogastres or the Scaphopoda of which we have analysed no representatives. So far as our studies were concerned, the cephalopods differed considerably from the other molluscs examined, and the relatively large amount of information they have provided will be more conveniently presented in a subsequent paper. The account which follows, therefore, deals only with species from the first three classes just listed.