New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Seasonal variations in chemical response to conspecific scents in the
spotted spiny lobster, Panulirus guttatus
Patricia Briones-Fourzán
Enrique Lozano-Álvarez
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología
Unidad Académica Puerto Morelos
P.O. Box 1152, Cancún 77500
México
email: briones@mar.icmyl.unam.mx
email: elozano@mar.icmyl.unam.mx
Abstract Chemical response to conspecific scents mediate
aggregations in some species of spiny lobsters, but patterns of co-denning
of adult lobsters in their natural habitats vary widely. This is so for Panulirus
guttatus, a small, sedentary, obligate reef-dwelling species with a protracted,
almost year-round reproductive season. We hypothesised that changes in patterns
of aggregation may vary with the intensity of reproductive activity in the
population, which in turn may cause changes in responses to conspecific scents.
To test this hypothesis, we conducted three laboratory experiments with Y-mazes
to test for seasonal variations in gender-related and size-related response
to conspecific scents in mature P. guttatus. When reproductive activity
(RA) was high (experiment High-RA, 67.4% reproductive females), males responded
significantly to scents of conspecifics of both genders, but females only
to the scent of females. When reproductive activity had not yet reached its
yearly lowest point (experiment Medium-RA, 50.0% reproductive females), only
females responded significantly to scents of other females, and when reproductive
activity was at its lowest (experiment Low-RA, 4.8% reproductive females)
no treatment yielded significant responses. However, results of the size-related
treatments showed that only large individuals responded significantly to
scents of other large lobsters during the High-RA experiment, whereas during
the Medium-RA only small individuals responded to scents of both small and
large lobsters. These results are in accordance with previously observed
size-dependent reproduction in P. guttatus over the protracted reproductive
season. Therefore, chemical response to conspecific scents in P. guttatus
vary with season, gender, and size and may influence co-denning patterns
of mature individuals in the reef habitat.
Keywords chemical cues; Panulirus guttatus; reproductive
activity; spiny lobster
M04081; Online publication date 31 May 2005 Received 31 March 2004; accepted
14 January 2005
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39:
383-390
0028-8330/05/3902-0383 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005
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