March, 2000 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 11 
important than the outcome. Electronic 
responses can still not be considered. Only 
paper ballots will be counted. As in the past, 
your comments and requests for future areas to 
be addressed in SCAMIT meetings should be 
added to the bottom of the ballot in the space 
provided. If your comments are more extensive 
please feel free to write on the back of the 
ballot or add additional sheets. The input would 
be welcomed. 
SCAS MEETINGS 
The 2000 meetings of the Southern California 
Academy of Sciences will be held on the 
campus of the University of Southern 
California on 19-20 May. Six symposia are 
scheduled: Understanding the Urban Influence 
on Santa Monica Bay, Coastal Habitat 
Restoration, The Ecology of Kelp Beds in 
Southern California, Research at Public 
Aquaria, New and Rare Fish and Invertebrate 
Species to California during the 1997-98 El 
Nino, and the Los Angeles River Symposium. 
Pre-registration is open until 15 April; 
registering for both days costs $ 50 for 
professionals ($40 if a member), $25 for 1 day, 
and $15 for students. Registration at the door 
or after 15 April will cost each category $10 
more. Questions about registration should be 
addressed to Dr. Dan Guthrie at 
dguthrie@jsd.claremont.edu. More details are 
available on the SCAS web site 
http://earth.usc.edu/ seas/ 
A number of SCAMIT members will be 
presenting, and the selection of symposia for 
this session is strongly marine biased. Try and 
attend. 
NEW LITERATURE 
Pennington et al (1999) report on the 
development of larvae and juveniles of the 
local brachiopod Laqueus californianus. We 
only encounter the animal once in a while, 
when we stray near the shelf edge where it 
tends to live (as in the SCBPP trawls in 1994). 
In other areas it has a much broader 
distribution, from intertidal (British Columbia) 
to over 800m in the Monterey Submarine 
Canyon. You usually find many when you 
encounter any, and this is largely explained by 
the attractiveness of the adult test as a larval 
settlement site. Experiments by the authors 
conclusively demonstrate that larval settlement 
is largely on existing adults. The larvae also 
remain competent in the water column for 
some time (up to 71 days in culture), giving 
them ample opportunity to locate the scattered 
patches of adults. The authors intend to explore 
other facets of Laqueus ecology in subsequent 
papers. 
Not all propagule dispersal happens prior to 
metamorphosis as demonstrated by Hendler et 
al (1999a). Post-metamorphic juvenile brittle 
stars were caught in a tethered plankton net on 
a coral reef. They had evidently 
metamorphosed to a benthic form from free- 
swimming larvae, and then reentered the 
plankton by either active swimming, or by 
rafting on small algal fragments. As with other 
seemingly sessile benthic forms, unexpected 
behavior (such as clams floating suspended 
from mucous threads), adds to the dispersal 
potential of the species. Such considerations 
are often overlooked in modeling species 
dispersal, and should be quantified and 
included to refine such assessments. 
Even more behavioral complexity in brittle- 
stars is documented by Hendler et al (1999b) 
who found juveniles of one species 
(i Ophiomastix annulosa ) living on another 
(Ophiocoma scolopendrina) . As these were 
usually found in the genital bursae of the host, 
they can be considered brood parasites. They 
do not harm the host ophiuroid, but, in addition 
to protection from intertidal exposure and 
predators, they may benefit by stealing food 
from the adult. Juveniles of the host species are 
also found on the adult (as are juveniles of 
another species, Amphipholis squamata, which 
occurs locally), but they do not occupy the 
genital bursae as do the brood parasites. A 
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