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Living in sympatry via differentiation in time, space and display characters of courtship behaviors of bioluminescent marine ostracods

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Abstract

Distinguishing among courtship signals can be extremely important for individuals in regions where related species co-occur, including among sympatric species pairs and along hybrid zones. Reef habitats off the coast of Belize are shared by bioluminescent ostracods that perform nightly bioluminescent displays used in courtship. These displays vary in light pulse durations, interpulse distances and intervals, and direction. Here, we test how six sympatric species of marine ostracods (three described and three undescribed species) partition the display arena in time and space. Males from all six species can be differentiated based on morphology and species-specific luminescent display traits. Timing of nightly courtship display initiation and peak display timing differed among species by 5–25 min, and the order of appearance for each species was consistent across nights. In addition to varying temporally, species used different microhabitats (grassbed, sand channels, reef slopes and reef crest) for their courtship displays. Our findings support the hypothesis that species with more similar display traits (pulse duration, interpulse distance, number of pulses) differ most in the time and space used for courtship. The large number of axes for displacement of both luminescent display traits and spatio-temporal habitat use for courtship suggests that ostracods have the genetic toolkit for rapid diversification. This species complex living in sympatry yields a rich system for testing how genetic determination of behavioral traits relates to sexual selection and speciation.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to editor Martin Thiel, three reviewers for feedback and edits on our original submission. We would like to thank Colleen Kearns and Hilary Kates for assistance with data collection. We thank Nelson Hairston Jr. and Amy McCune for feedback on experimental design and early drafts of the manuscript. Mark Riccio of the Cornell University Institute of Biotechnology Imaging Facility assisted in the micro-CT scanning of the specimens. We give a special thanks in memorium to Victor Orlando Escobar (1974–2014), our beloved Belizean field guide who assisted with this research. Funding was provided by the Mario Einaudi International Fund at Cornell University, the Lerner Grey Fund for Marine Science and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. All work was completed in accordance with permits obtained from the Belize Department of Fisheries.

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  1. Gretchen A. Gerrish

    Present address: River Studies Center, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, 54601, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, 54601, USA

    Gretchen A. Gerrish

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Gretchen A. Gerrish & James G. Morin

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  1. Gretchen A. Gerrish
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Correspondence to Gretchen A. Gerrish.

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The authors declare that they know of no conflicts of interest pertaining to the work submitted.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Mario Einaudi International Fund at Cornell University, the Lerner Grey Fund for Marine Science and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. (Grant numbers not available).

Ethical standard

No vertebrate animals or human participants were used in this study. All applicable international, national and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All work was done in compliance with permits from the Department of Fisheries, Belize.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: M. Thiel.

Reviewed by A. Palaoro, J. H. Christy and an undisclosed expert.

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Gerrish, G.A., Morin, J.G. Living in sympatry via differentiation in time, space and display characters of courtship behaviors of bioluminescent marine ostracods. Mar Biol 163, 190 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2960-5

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