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JPR Advance Access published online on December 4, 2006
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbl060
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

research-article

Water flow around a fish mimic attracts a parasitic and deters a planktonic copepod

Peter A. Heuch, Michael H. Doall*,1 and Jeannette Yen*,2

National Veterinary Institute, PO Box 8156 Dep., N-0033 Oslo, Norway. Email: peter-andreas.heuch{at}vetinst.no

Received on January 27, 2006; revised on September 12, 2006; accepted on October 24, 2006


  Abstract

Fish typically evoke a flight response in copepods. The behaviour of infective stage parasitic copepods, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, and adult holoplanktonic copepods, Acartia spp., in response to the approach of a rubber fish mimic was compared. Responses were scored as attacks if the copepod moved closer to the head, or escapes if it moved further from the head. The parasite attacked the mimic in 65% of its responses, whereas Acartia spp. escaped from the mimic in 87% of its responses. Lepeophtheirus salmonis escaped in sinuous routes that kept them closer to the fish, but Acartia spp. escaped in straight paths directed away from the mimic. Attacks by L. salmonis were equally frequent in the dark (68.9%) as in light (60.3%), and net-to-gross-displacement-ratios under the two conditions were not significantly different. Copepod responses were evoked in regions of flow with linear strain rates greater than 0.5/s. The fish hydrodynamic signals thus serve as attractants that guide the parasite to the fish, and produce an avoidance response of the holoplanktonic copepod. Thus, the same information, most likely received by the same sensors, produce ‘opposite’ reactions to the fish, suggesting the evolution of different behaviour patterns suited to the way of life of the copepod.

Key Words: parasitic copepod • infection response • hydrodynamics • Lepeophtheirus salmonis • Acartia sp

* Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5000, USA

1 Present address: Functional Ecology Laboratory, Dept. of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5000, USA

2 Present address: School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Ave., Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0230, USA


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