A Large Bivalve Mollusc as Food for Wandering Sea-Anemone

Recently while transferring a preserved wandering sea-anemone, Phlyctenactis sp. (prob. P. tuberculosa), to a more suitable container, I felt a hard object within the animal. This proved to be a bivalve mollusc, Longamactra elongata, and apparently had been engulfed by the anemone as food. The mollusc was slightly agape but intact. Seemingly it had been taken by the anemone just before the latter itself was captured in the fishing trawl. The anemone, in the contracted state of preservation, is 8 × 6 cm. while the shell is 6 × 4 cm. The typical hieroglyphic markings on the epidermis of the L. elongata are unimpaired. As many undamaged but empty shells of L. elongata are taken in the region it may well be suspected that they are regurgitated by this predator. The specimen was taken in 15-18 fathoms, E.S.E. of Oamaru, in July, 1960, and this is the greatest depth in which I have noted the wandering sea-anemone.