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Tarturus — Polyp sac feeding methods

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Published: 2019-01-02 04:39:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 1638; Favourites: 10; Downloads: 0
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Description Unlike plants, polyp sacs have no ability to photosynthesise. There are a number of ways they obtain nourishment for themselves. The most primitive forms are chemosynthetic, converting chemical energy into food. Many others are saprophytic. There are also a number of polyp sacs who feed on small animals.

Some polyp sacs can use their polyps as traps. They emit an odor that is reminiscent of the odor that attracts certain small pseudo-arthropods to certain edible plants. The intended prey will come to investigate. As it lands on the polyp, the polyp will produce a suction force that sucks in the prey, and then seals up to digest it within.

A far more common, but also far less noticeable, method of predation involves the use of near-microsopic tendrils on the roots. These are used to catch thread worms. When a thread worm gets too close to a polyp sac root, one of the numerous tendrils on the root- whichever one happens to be closest to the worm, will lash out and coil itself around the worm. The vast majority of polyp sacs have predatory tendrils. Thread worms that venture too close to polyp sac roots are essentially doomed. These worms are, however, so extremely numerous there is no real chance this subterranean predation will have any serious impact on their numbers.

The clouds of grass spores that regularly blow over the plains have also been exploited by some polyp sacs. The land anemones will use their sticky leaf-like polyps to catch grass spores, which are absorbed and ingested. Sometimes, the spores of other polyp sacs (including even other land anemones) will also meet the same fate. The grass spores may have been what led to the evolution of terrestrial filter feeding in both some polyp sacs and some animals (e.g. air licker radials), but spore eaters have no qualms about eating the spores of other things as well.

It should be noted that it is common for a polyp sac to use more than just one feeding method. For example, trilobe polyp sacs eat small pseudo-arthropods and decomposing organic matter, and land anemones eat spores, but both additionally use predator tendrils to catch the microscopic and near-microscopic thread worms as well.
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