Substrate Selection by Corophium Species: The Particle Size of Substrates

Abstract

When offered a choice of sand having different particle sizes, C. volutator preferred fine to coarse over a range of sizes. On the basis of one experiment, C. arenarium was indifferent to particle size. C. volutator may be misled as to the nature of the underlying substrate by thin surface layers of differnet particle size. When offered sand of the same grain size sieved from the substrates of the two species, C. volutator burrowed mainly in the sand from its own substrate; C. arenarium detected no differnece between the two sands.