Life History & Behaviour

In the Plumularioidea colonies, polyps are morphologically and functionally specialised like for feeding: gastrozooid = hydranth. The hydranth is normally referred to the "flower" like region on the top with each having it's own well developed manubrium. The short swollen region right below the manubrium houses the stomach surrounded by a whorl of tentacles. It is a suspension feeder and captures microscopic plankton, and is consumed by nudibranchs and sea spiders

 

As mentioned while discussing morphology, they use their sarcostyle which protrudes thin pseudopodia that are able to phagocytose small granules on the surface of the skeleton.

Reproductive polyps are referred to as gonozooids, enclosed by thecae and therefore also called gonothecae. Like others in their group, they reproduce by budding and the reproductive bodies are fixed on the stems. Gonophores are normally fixed on the hydrocaulus as sporosacs with the gonotheca being elongate-oval (Calder, 1997). Most of the specimens available at the time were in their juvenile stages, therefore very little was observed about their reproductive behaviour. 

There is a need for extensive research on the reduced medusae stages of the family Kirchenpaueriidae.