[Feeding and prey-catching of a pantopod, anoplodactylus petiolatus Krøger]

The pantopods Ammothea echinata, Nymphon rubrum and Pallene brevirostris could not be kept alive without hydrozoons as food. Anoplodactylus petiolatus, however, could be kept alive for more than 9 months by feeding them with small parts of the mantle of Mytilus edulis. The pantopods seize these parts with their chelicerae and suck them out. As the animals are transparent the ingestion of the food can be observed directly.Furthermore, the pantopods could be observed eating small polychaetes. These were not sucked out but swallowed whole. The pantopods also seize small copepods moving within their reach with the claws of the first or second leg, convey them to the proboscis, seize them with the chelicerae and suck them out. The more copepods present, the less are the pantopods inclined to choose mussel meat as food.