This volume offers contributions from leading experts in the biology of chaetognaths, or arrow worms--voracious carnivores which are exceptionally abundant in all the seas of the world. Until now there has been a lack of easily accessible information on this group, despite the fact that their vast numbers very likely render chaetognaths of major ecological significance in marine planktonic communities. This work is the first comprehensive survey. It deals with all aspects of chaetognath biology, including much recent and unpublished work. Two chapters are devoted to taxonomic relationships, two chapters cover morphology and anatomy, four chapters are concerned with physiology and behavior, three are devoted to ecology, and one chapter provides detailed information about the techniques necessary for studying the organism. The book will interest all marine biologists and zoologists working on plankton, along with invertebrate biologists, systematists, and advanced students of marine biology.

Aquatic organisms swim in a variety of ways, from jet propulsion to ciliary action: they swim at a wide range of speeds and span a vast size range, from bacteria to protists, to the largest whales. One of the most fascinating aspects of aquatic locomotion is the remarkable sets of adaptations that have been evolved for different purposes. This volume brings together research on a wide range of swimming organisms, with an emphasis on the biomechanics, physiology and hydrodynamics of swimming in or on water. Several chapters deal with different aspects of fish swimming, from the use of different 'gaits' to the operation of the locomotor muscles. All chapters are by recognized authorities in their different fields, and all are accessible to biologists interested in aquatic locomotion.

Pelagic tunicates are fascinating for their beauty, remarkable in most cases for their curious and even bizarre life cycles, and often notable for extraordinarily rapid growth. Furthermore, in recent years their major importance in the economy of the sea has been recognized. Although the now outdated encyclopaedic texts of the 1930s dealt with pelagic tunicates, the results of much subsequent physiological and ecological work have only appeared in scattered articles. This book is unique in giving a modern account of the biology of pelagic tunicates, with much new and unpublished information. Different chapters treat such topics as the ecological impact of salp blooms, locomotion by jet propulsion, the affinities of different groups, and the abundance and distribution of each group. Updated classification and identification keys to every pelagic tunicate now known are included. The Biology of Pelagic Tunicates will be useful to all plankton workers, and may perhaps stimulate ecologists, physiologists, and geneticists to begin work on a somewhat neglected group of animals that offer some unusual advantages for different kinds of study.