| Facelinidae () |
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benthic; marine |
| Mediterranean Sea. |
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| Feeds directly on the hydranths of Eudendrium racemosum (Ref. 116462), wherein it's stimulated to feed and prefers hydranths which have captured the plankton, thus ingesting both the plankton and the hydroid polyp---a combination of predation and kleptoparasitism, a type of competition of stealing already captured food items. This combination does not fit into existing classifications, thus called 'kleptopredation.' Despite being an opportunistic predator which uses hydroids to capture prey from the column, hydranth forms only a fraction of its diet by volume. Plankton form at least half of its diet. |
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Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. 123251)
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| harmless |
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