Influence of temperature and salinity on the trace element incorporation into statoliths of the common cuttlefish (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sepia officinalis</Emphasis>)

The use of statolith chemistry to trace migration pathways and distinguish populations of cephalopods is based on the assumption that the elemental composition of statoliths is influenced by physicochemical properties of the ambient environment. However, such influences have not been investigated experimentally up until now. This study presents the first microchemical analyses of cephalopod statoliths obtained from laboratory experiments under different controlled temperature and salinity conditions. Our results show that statolith chemical composition is strongly related to both salinity and temperature in ambient waters. The Ba/Ca ratio is negatively related to temperature and shows no relation to salinity. The I/Ca ratio is positively related to temperature and negatively to salinity. No Sr/Ca relation was found to either salinity or temperature, suggesting that the well-established proxy strontium is not as useful in cephalopod statoliths as in other biomineralized aragonites. Microanalysis of trace elements, however, shows an enormous potential for field studies on distribution, migration and stock separation of cephalopods. Furthermore, Synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence Analysis is introduced as a promising novel method for statolith analysis, providing a spatial resolution of typically 10–15 μm combined with detection limits down to 0.5 ppm.     

Single-species bacteria in sediments induce larval settlement of the infaunal polychaetes Polydora cornuta and Streblospio benedicti

Larval settlement of the infaunal spionid polychaetes Polydora cornuta and Streblospio benedicti is mediated by sediment-associated microorganisms. To investigate if larval preference for certain sediment is guided by individual sediment-associated bacteria, 13 bacterial isolates (5 phyla) obtained from the natural habitat of adult polychaetes (Wadden Sea, Germany) in 2008 were screened in still-water, no-choice settlement assays. Two isolates (α-Proteobacterium-Strain DF11 and Flavobacterium-Strain 54) significantly triggered larval settlement in comparison with sterile sediment. In still-water, multiple-choice settlement assays comprising natural and sterile sediment and sediment re-inoculated with isolates DF11 and 54, significant preferences for natural sediment and sediment containing bacterial isolates at 10⁸ cells g^?1 were observed. Larval settlement was influenced by bacterial abundance in sediment but the correlation was not strictly positive; thus, maximum larval settlement in response to single bacterial species may occur at certain optimum densities. Non-viable or suspended bacteria and water-soluble bacterial products did not induce larval settlement, suggesting that sediment-associated bacterial settlement cues for P. cornuta and S. benedicti were either produced in situ and/or consisted of heat-labile bacterial products.     

Strobilation,budding and initiation of scyphistoma morphogenesis in the rhizostome Cassiopea andromeda (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa)

Scyphistomae of Cassiopea andromeda Forskål, 1775 containing symbiontic zooxanthellae did not develop medusae at a constant temperature of 20°C, but monodisc strobilation was initiated after transfer of the polyps to 24°C. After release of the ephyrae and regeneration of the hypostome and tentacular region, the recovered polyps either produced vegetative buds or entered a new strobilation phase. Formation of motile, planula-like buds was not found to be indicative of unfavourable environmental conditions. Intensity of budding was positively correlated with available food and with increase of temperature. Budding was negatively correlated with the number of polyps maintained per dish and with the conditioning of the sea water. Under optimal feeding and temperature conditions, polyps could simultaneously produce chains of buds at 2 to 4 budding regions. Settlement and development of buds into scyphistomae was suppressed in pasteurized sea water and in pasteurized sea water containing antibiotics, but polyps developed from buds in the presence of algal material taken from the aquarium, debris or egg shells of Artemia salina, or on glass slides which had been incubated in used A. salina culture medium. Several species of marine bacteria were detected after staining these slides. One, a Gramnegative coccoid rod, which was identified as a nonpathogenic Vibrio species, was isolated, cultivated as a pure strain, and was proved to induce the development of C. andromeda buds into polyps. Millipore filter-plates coated with Vibrio sp. cells grown in suspension culture were ineffectual, but diluted filtrate initiated polyp morphogenesis. The inducing factor is obviously not a constituent of the bacterial cell surface, but is a product of growing Vibrio sp. cells released into the medium. This product was found to be relatively heat-stable and dialyzable. As to the basic mechanism involved in the induction of polyp formation, it is suggested that the inducing factor (s) acts bimodally by inducing pedal disc development and by eliminating a head inhibitor originating from the basal end of the bud. The life history, and various aspects of medusa-formation and of vegetative reproduction in scyphozoans are reviewed and discussed with particular reference to rhizostome species. Special attention has been paid to some reports of larval metamorphosis controlled by marine bacteria.     

Sperm limitation and the evolution of extreme polyandry in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.)

Honeybee queens (Apis mellifera) show extreme levels of polyandry, but the evolutionary mechanisms underlying this behaviour are still unclear. The sperm-limitation hypothesis, which assumes that high levels of polyandry are essential to get a lifetime sperm supply for large and long-lived colonies, has been widely disregarded for honeybees because the semen of a single male is, in principle, sufficient to fill the spermatheca of a queen. However, the inefficient post-mating sperm transfer from the queens lateral oviducts into the spermatheca requires multiple matings to ensure an adequate spermatheca filling. Males of the African honeybee subspecies A. m. capensis have fewer sperm than males of the European subspecies A. m. carnica. Thus, given that sperm limitation is a cause for the evolution of multiple mating in A. mellifera, we would expect A. m. capensis queens to have higher mating frequencies than A. m. carnica. Here we show that A. m. capensis queens indeed exhibit significantly higher mating frequencies than queens of A. m. carnica, both in their native ranges and in an experiment on a North Sea island under the same environmental conditions. We conclude that honeybee queens try to achieve a minimum number of matings on their mating flights to ensure a sufficient lifetime sperm supply. It thus seems premature to reject the sperm-limitation hypothesis as a concept explaining the evolution of extreme polyandry in honeybees.Communicated by R.E. Page     

Contribution of olfactory navigation and non-olfactory pilotage to pigeon homing

Summary By means of training flights (mostly flock releases), two groups of young homing pigeons were made familar with a larger area asymmetrically extending from the loft toward SW and NE, respectively. Thereafter, birds of both groups were released within each of the training areas with which one sort of birds was familiar (F⁺), the other unfamiliar (F^-). Even the F⁺ pigeons had never been released at the test site itself (nearest previous release 10 km apart). Half of each group was allowed to smell environmental odors (O⁺); the other half breathed charcoal-filtered air during transportation and at the release site until a few minutes before release when they were deprived of olfaction by intranasal application of Xylocain (O^-). The two test sites were 53 km distant from home. There was little difference in initial orientation as well as in homing performance between pigeons that were allowed to smell natural air and were familiar with the area (F⁺O⁺) and those that were privileged in only one respect (F⁺O^- and F^-O⁺). Yet if none of the preconditions was met (F^-O^-), performances were drastically reduced. The findings show that pigeons make use of two independent homing methods, olfactory navigation (presumably based on a navigational map) and non-olfactory pilotage (presumably based on a topographical map). The latter method is restricted to a more or less familiar area determined by individual experience. Its boundaries are poorly defined and can be estimated by the experimenter only in rough approximation. Within this area, the homing system takes advantage of more or less redundant inputs. Outside of it, olfactory information seems indispensable.