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In mollusks, statocyst receptor cells (SRCs) interact with each other forming a neural network; their activity is determined by both the animal's orientation in the gravitational field and multimodal inputs. These two facts suggest that the function of the statocysts is not limited to sensing the animal's orientation. We studied the role of the statocysts in the organization of search motion during hunting behavior in the marine mollusk, Clione limacina. When hunting, Clione swims along a complex trajectory including numerous twists and turns confined within a definite space. Search-like behavior could be evoked pharmacologically by physostigmine; application of physostigmine to the isolated CNS produced “fictive search behavior” monitored by recordings from wing and tail nerves. Both in behavioral and in vitro experiments, we found that the statocysts are necessary for search behavior. The motor program typical of …