Orientation in the intertidal salt-marsh collembolan Anurida maritima |
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Authors: | A Manica F K McMeechan W A Foster |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK e-mail: am315@cus.cam.ac.uk Tel.: +44-1223-336638, Fax: +44-1223-336676, GB |
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Abstract: | We investigated the cues used by the intertidal insect Anurida maritima (Apterygota: Collembola) to orient to the appropriate zone in which to seek shelter during high tide. Our experiments clearly
ruled out any significant role for magnetic, local topographic, slope or celestial cues. Instead, we suggest that the difference
between the appearance of the up-shore and the down-shore horizon is the major cue used by the collembolans. When a mirror
was used to duplicate either of the two horizons, the insects were not able to orient. The insects moved towards an artificially
dark horizon (the reverse of the mirror) placed down-shore, the opposite of their usual direction of movement. The insects
had an endogenous circatidal rhythm of phototactic behaviour: most of the population was always negatively phototactic, but
between 2 and 7 h after low tide, a significant proportion of the population became positively phototactic. This is the first
demonstration of an endogenous tidal rhythm of orientation in an insect.
Received: 31 May 1999 / Received in revised form: 1 February 2000 / Accepted: 19 February 2000 |
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Keywords: | Circatidal rhythms Orientation Intertidal insects Anurida maritima |
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