ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the differential arm loss in two sympatric species of sand stars. Trawl data from a single site collection in 1989 revealed that 20/120 (16.7%) of A. articulatus had regenerating arms compared to 60/122 (49.2%) of L. clathrata taken at the same time. A recent sample of 71 individuals taken simultaneously at the same site indicated that 15/71 (21.1%) of A. articulatus and 50/71 (70.4%) of L. clathrata exhibited regenerating arms. Finding suggests that L. clathrata is more intensively preyed upon, must invest considerably more energy in arm regeneration, and contributes significant nutrients and energy to higher trophic levels through arm loss.
