Factors Mediating Interspecific Aggregation of Tubificid Oligochaetes

Abstract

Tubifex tubifex and Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri are both attracted to the feces of T. tubifex rather than to those of L. hoffmeisteri or a control sediment. This substantiates the hypothesis that lowered respiration and increased growth caused by mixing the two species could be due to an increase in time spent burrowing, rather than feeding, when isolated species are removed from their preferred food, the feces of another species of worm. It also helps explain the inter- and intraspecific clumping that characterizes their normal distribution.