1405 



Noguchi, Hideyo . 1921. 



Cristispira in North American shellfish. A note on a spirillum found in 

 oysters. J. Exper. Med. 34: 295-315, 4 pis. 



Ten molluscan species collected in the Woods Hole, Mass. area were examined 

 for presence of the parasitic spiral organism Cristispira. The parasite was 

 found in the crystalline style of 3 species, including Venus mercenaria. In 

 110 hard clams examined, styles were present in 70. Only 8 styles contained 

 the parasite. Efforts to culture the organism failed. - J.L.M. 



1406 



North, Dan. 1963. 



Oysters from Europe for S.F. San Francisco Examiner, Sec. 1, p. 23, June 16. 



Refers to plantings of 800 European oysters in Tomales and Drakes Bays in 

 summer 1962, and 2,000 quahogs in Tomales Bay in May 1963, by Victor L. 

 Loosanoff and Walter Dahlstrom. - J.L.M. 



1407 



Nystrom, Richard A. 1967. 



Spontaneous activity of clam intestinal muscle. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 

 21(3) : 601-610. 



Longitudinal non-striated muscle of Mercenaria mercenaria intestine gives an 

 unusual variety of contraction patterns when excited spontaneously, neurally, 

 electrically and pharmacologically. Experiments were conducted with isolated 

 preparations of the cardiac segment of hard clam gut in a sea water bath at 

 21 to 23°C. Isolated segments of hard clam intestine are frequently, although 

 not always, spontaneously active. Normally this activity consists of a series 

 of slow, rhythmic waves which are not very strong. Often, also, a preparation 

 will show trains of fast contractions. Trains of 10 or so contractions occur 

 about once every 5 min. 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) produces variable reactions 

 in hard clam intestine. Three successive applications of 10 - ^M 5-HT produced 

 first a large, long contraction followed by slow relaxation, second a large 

 but faster contraction followed by beating (3 contractions/min) and a small 

 increase in tone, third, delayed beating (4.5 contractions/min) and tone, but 

 no initial tonic contraction. 10~5 acetylcholine (ACh) elicited a phasic and 

 a tonic response, confirming Greenberg's data. These experiments suggested 

 that the spontaneous activity of Mercenaria intestine is normally caused by 

 spontaneous activity of nerve cells embedded within the musculature. - J.L.M. 



1408 



O'Connor, J. S. 1972. 



The benthic macrofauna of Moriches Bay, New York. Biol. Bull. 142(1): 84-102. 



Samples were taken with a Ponar grab which sampled an area of 0.05 m^ . The 

 grab penetrated relatively deeply except in sandy sediments. All sampling 

 stations were selected at random, except for 14 purposely selected, mostly 

 in dredged channels. Five substrate types were recognized: sandy sediments 

 (37% of total area of Bay bottom), clayey silt and silt (33%), transitional 

 (sand with 25-80% clay and silt 20%), and dredged channels (10%). The fifth 

 was identified by subdividing the sandy biotope into bottoms with dense 

 vegetation and those with sparse or no growth. Major taxa identified were 

 13, with 24 dominant and 12 less dominant species. In the Bay as a whole 

 polychaetes (41%) and bivalves (36%) predominated in ash-free dry weight. 

 The small area sampled per grab and the relative rarity of Mercenaria 

 mercenaria as individuals caused great variability in biomass estimates. 

 Nevertheless, hard clam was by far the dominant organism in wet weight 

 biomass. Although it was not stated, it is assumed that biomass of bivalves 

 was reported with valves removed. Suspension feeders dominated in sandy 

 sediments, deposit feeders in soft clayey silt bottoms. The standing crop 

 of macrobenthic organisms was less than expected, probably because oxygen 

 concentrations are low in summer. - J.L.M. and W.J.B. 



395 



