Defense through sensory disruption: ink secretion from sea hares reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food-related chemicals
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1
Georgia State University, Neuroscience, United States
Antipredator defenses are ubiquitous and diverse. The ink secretion of sea hares (Aplysia spp.), consisting of ink and opaline, is an antipredator defense acting on the chemical senses, as a decoy and repellent. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that ink secretion also acts through sensory disruption, using the spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, as a predator. Opaline is a highly viscous substance, containing millimolar concentrations of amino acids, which coats the antennules and mouthparts of attacking spiny lobsters. This coating may contribute to a physical disruption of both chemical and mechanical transduction, as well as to disruption by overstimulation of chemoreceptors. We coated the antennules, a major chemosensory organ of spiny lobsters, with opaline, components of opaline, and a mimic that resembles opaline’s physical nature but lacks its chemicals. We compared effects of these treatments on responses to a food odor (shrimp juice) for chemoreceptor neurons in isolated antennules (as a measure of effect on chemosensory input) and for antennular motor responses of intact spiny lobsters (as a measure of effect on chemically-driven motor behavior). Our results indicate that opaline and other substances that coat the sensory organs are capable of disrupting chemosensory responses, but their chemicals alone are not. Thus, opaline is a physical barrier against chemosensory input. This is the first experimental demonstration of sensory disruption as a chemical defense and a rare demonstration of sensory disruption in any sensory modality.
Acknowledgements
Supported by NSF grants IOS-0614685 and IOS-1036742
Keywords:
chemical defense,
chemical senses,
Crustacea,
gastropod,
lobster,
predator-prey interactions,
sea hare,
sensory disruption
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster (but consider for Participant Symposium)
Topic:
Sensory: Olfaction and Taste
Citation:
Love-Chezem
T,
Aggio
J and
Derby
C
(2012). Defense through sensory disruption: ink secretion from sea hares reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food-related chemicals.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00324
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Received:
30 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Charles Derby, Georgia State University, Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, 30302-5030, United States, cderby@gsu.edu