American Scientist

Lovell and Libby Langstroth, who wrote the text and took most of the stunning photographs for A Living Bay: The Underwater World of Monterey Bay (University of California, $60), have organized their book by the wide range of major habitats extending outward and downward from the shore. Sexual, chemical and predator-prey interactions are recurrent themes. Shown here (top to bottom) are a leather star (Dermasterias imbricata) preying on Corynactis; Macrocystis kelp (the white spots on its blades are colonies of the encrusting bryozoan Membranipora membranacea); Pelagia ephyrae, which are tiny medusae (photograph by Freya Sommer); the aboral surface of a sea star (Asterina), showing its sieve plate (a buttonlike yellow structure that is the perforated opening of its water vascular system); and the "sand collar" that a female moon snail has molded about her shell from layers of mucus and sand to protect her fertilized eggs.