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Table 42. Most commonly eaten invertebrate prey in the Hudson-Raritan
Estuary by the 20 most common predators examined in this survey, in approximate
order of their overall frequency of occurrence in the diets |
|
Prey (common name) |
Primary Predators (also eaten by other predators) |
Crangon septemspinosa
(sevenspine bay shrimp or sand shrimp) |
Commonly eaten by all but winter flounder and tautog for which
they are minor prey. |
Neomysis americana
(opossum shrimp) |
Eaten by all but clearnose & winter skates, tautog, smooth
dogfish, and American lobster. |
Gammarus lawrencianus
(scud amphipod) |
Eaten by windowpane, scup, red, spotted & silver hakes,
weakfish, northern searobin, and northern kingfish. |
Cancer irroratus
(Atlantic rock crab) |
Mostly juveniles eaten by little, clearnose & winter skates,
striped & northern searobin, black sea bass, tautog, smooth dogfish,
grubby, American lobster, summer flounder, and red hake. |
Ovalipes ocellatus
(lady crab or calico crab) |
Juveniles mostly eaten by little, winter & clearnose skates,
summer flounder, smooth dogfish, spotted hake, striped searobin, and striped
bass. |
Pagurus spp., P. longicarpus
(right-handed hermit crabs, longwrist hermit) |
Commonly eaten by little skate, American lobster, tautog,
smooth dogfish, and smallmouth flounder. |
Ampelisca abdita
(four-eye amphipod) |
Winter flounder, windowpane, scup, weakfish, striped searobin,
black sea bass, spot, and silver hake commonly eat these. |
Pseudodiaptomus coronatus
(red copepod) |
Commonly eaten by windowpane, spotted hake, and spot. |
Mytilus edulis
(blue mussel) |
Adults eaten by winter skate and tautog; spat eaten by other
predators. |
Corophium tuberculatum
(tube amphipod) |
Weakfish and grubby eat them. |
| Unciola sp. (tube amphipod) |
Eaten by winter flounder and northern searobin. |
Dyspanopeus sayi
(Say mud crab or xanthid crab) |
Eaten mostly by tautog, black sea bass, and smooth dogfish. |
Ensis directus
(Atlantic jacknife or razor clam) |
Siphons and whole clams eaten by little & clearnose skate,
smooth dogfish, and tautog. |
Callinectes sapidus
(blue crab) |
Minor use of juveniles by several predators. |
Palaemonetes sp., mostly P. vulgaris
(grass shrimps, marsh grass shrimp) |
Found in striped bass and American lobster stomachs. |
Dichelopandalus leptocerus
(bristled longbeak shrimp or red-beaked shrimp) |
Eaten by red hake, with minor use by several other predators. |
Asabellides oculata
(spaghetti worm) |
Minor use only by several predators. |
Pherusa affinis
(green bristlehead tube worm) |
Minor use only by several predators. |
Mercenaria mercenaria
(northern quahog or hard clam) |
Only siphons eaten by winter flounder, and minor use by scup
and little skate. |
Spisula solidissima
(Atlantic surfclam) |
Only siphons eaten by winter flounder, and meats by smooth
dogfish. |
Glycera sp.
(blood worm) |
Minor use by winter flounder and smooth dogfish. |