Antifouling adaptations of marine shrimp (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea): Functional morphology and adaptive significance of antennular preening by the third maxillipeds

Preening (cleaning, grooming) of the antennules and other cephalothoracic appendages by the third maxillipeds was observed in several species of shrimp. Distribution and ultrastructure of serrate grooming setae on the third maxillipeds, which scrape the antennules, was studied with light and scanning electron microscopy. The motor patterns of antennular cleaning were similar for all species. Antennular preening was the most frequent grooming behavior observed, but the duration of other grooming behaviors was greater. Tidepool shrimps (Heptacarpus pictus) experimentally prevented from grooming the antennules by ablation suffered fouling of the olfactory hairs of the antennules with their subsequent breakage and loss; antennules of controls remained clean and undamaged. Antennular preening, a frequent and widespread behavior of caridean shrimps and other decapod crustaceans, is suggested as having high adaptive value in keeping sensory sites free of epizoic and sedimentary fouling which might render them inoperative.