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Mating behaviour of Pseudodiaptomus annandalei (Copepoda, Calanoida) at calm and hydrodynamically disturbed waters

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Abstract

Behavioural observations of male copepods revealed that they commonly follow female footprints to find their mates. Copepods can perceive signals generated by females either hydromechanically or chemically. Signal intensity is affected by hydrodynamic conditions which clear chemical and mechanical cues and modulate copepod’s ability to sense signals of their biotic environment, such as in their search for mates. We studied the patterns and efficiency of the copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei to mate in calm and hydrodynamically disturbed waters, in illuminated and dark conditions in experimental containers of different shapes and volumes. Courtship in P. annandalei was a negative function of hydromechanical disturbance, since successful mating events were observed in calm water only. In weakly turbulent conditions (air-bubbling of 100 ml/min), males were not able to pursue females properly; swimming speed decreased about three times in comparison with that in calm water. In calm water conditions, sequential and simultaneous taxis mechanisms were used by P. annandalei males to pursue females. The ability of P. annandalei males to track a three-dimensional trail probably depended on the persistence of fluid-borne signals.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the National Science Council of Taiwan, ROC (NSC grant Nos. 94-2611-M-019-010, 94-2621-B-019-001, 95-2621-B-019-002 and 96-2621-B-019-001) and the Center of Excellence for Marine Bioenvironment and Biotechnology of the National Taiwan Ocean University for financial support to J.-S. Hwang. This paper is a contribution to a bilateral project between Taiwan and France (Grant NSC 98-2311-B-019-002-MY3). The Acharya Narendra Dev College (University of Delhi) is thanked to sanction a leave to RK. We thank François-Gael Michalec for commenting on the manuscript. This research was partially supported to HUD by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-A001-0057).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung, 202, Taiwan, ROC

    Chien-Huei Lee, Ram Kumar & Jiang-Shiou Hwang

  2. Green Life Science Department, College of Convergence, Sangmyung University, 7 Hongij-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 110-743, South Korea

    Hans-Uwe Dahms

  3. Tungkang Biotechnology Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute, Tungkang, Pingtung, 928, Taiwan, ROC

    Shin-Hong Cheng

  4. Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, CNRS UMR 8187 LOG, Station Marine de Wimereux, Université de Lille 1 Sciences et Technologies, 28 av. Foch, 62930, Wimereux, France

    Sami Souissi & Francois G. Schmitt

  5. Department of Zoology, Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi, Delhi, 10007, India

    Ram Kumar

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  1. Chien-Huei Lee
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Communicated by X. Irigoien.

Chien-Huei Lee and Hans-Uwe Dahms contributed equally to this work.

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Lee, CH., Dahms, HU., Cheng, SH. et al. Mating behaviour of Pseudodiaptomus annandalei (Copepoda, Calanoida) at calm and hydrodynamically disturbed waters. Mar Biol 158, 1085–1094 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-011-1632-8

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