Phyllosomata associated with large gelatinous zooplankton: hitching rides and stealing bites

During a zooplankton survey 350 km off the coast of Western Australia, we captured a large and robust zooid of a salp (Thetys vagina), to which six late stage larvae (phyllosomata) of the western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus) were attached. High-throughput sequencing analyses of DNA extracts from midgut glands of the larvae confirmed that each phyllosoma had consumed mainly salp tissue (𝒳̄ = 64.5% ± 15.9 of DNA reads). These results resolve long-standing conjecture whether spiny lobster phyllosomata attach to large gelatinous hosts to feed on them.