polychaete jaws

[dseaman at sfu.ca]

Please respond to the following to me directly (dseaman at sfu.ca) as I am 
not on the listserv.  

[ In such circumstances one  sends simultaneously to the list - if the reply 
is of general interest - and to the person.  - Moderator ]

I am a M.Sc. student at Simon Fraser University and I am working on 
physiological ecology of Western Sandpipers in BC, Canada, and 
Washington, USA.  I am interested in relating the physiology of individuals 
to the diet and would like	to do so through fecal sample analysis.  The 
western sandpiper (at least in	BC and Washington) eats primarily small 
crustaceans. They have also been shown to ingest polychaetes though 
they don't seem to represent a large percentage of their diet.  A student 
before me did similar work with fecal samples and has never found 
polychaete jaws in a western sandpiper fecal sample.  I recently started 
looking thorugh my samples and in the first sample found what appears to 
be a polychaete jaw.	Westerns are known to eat polychaetes of the 
following species:  

Epidiopatra hupferiana
Amandia brevis
Glycinde armigara
Nephtys rickettsi
Nereis sp.
Eteone sp.

The most commonly consumed polychaetes are nereids and from 
comparisons in the keys (Kozloff and Light's Manual), it appears that it 
could be a nereid jaw. However, to properly identify it would require 
detailed drawings of polychaete jaws.  

Does anybody on this list know of a good resource that has detailed
 anatomical sketches or keys of ploychaete jaws, preferably for this
geogrpahical region (Washington State/British Columbia

Any assistance in these matters would be most helpful. Again, please direct 
any response directly to me (dseaman at sfu.ca) as I am not of the list-serv. 
	   
[ Or to both. And remember ... all  replies to the list are archived on the web 
anyway - Moderator ]

******************
Dana Seaman
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC
CANADA V5A 1S6
(604) 291-5422
dseaman at sfu.ca


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