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Avoidance of conspecific injury-released chemical cues by free-ranging Gammarus lacustris (Crustacea:Amphipoda).

Behavioral responses to chemical cues have been demonstrated for a range of aquatic animals. Injury-released chemical alarm cues from conspecifics are released when a prey's predator is actively foraging. Detection of these cues elicits antipredator behaviors that reduce the probability of predation. Amphipod crustaceans in the genus Gammarus are widespread denizens of ponds and streams. Antipredator responses by Gammarus to conspecific alarm cues, and subsequent reduction of predation risk, are known from experiments in the laboratory. Here, we verify laboratory findings by demonstrating an avoidance response to alarm cues using a field population of G. lacustris. We used small traps baited with sponge blocks containing either water (control) or injury-released cues from Gammarus. We repeated the experiment twice. In both experiments, significantly fewer Gammarus were captured in traps with alarm cue sponges than in traps with water sponges. Predatory leeches Dina parva were attracted to Gammarus traps in the first experiment but not the second experiment. In the second experiment, we measured the individual weight of captured amphipods. Two size classes were present; small (1-5 mg) and large (35-108 mg). Both sizes contributed to the avoidance response. Within the large size class, small individuals were significantly less responsive to the alarm cue than large individuals, implying that small adult Gammarus may have different cost/benefit decision criteria for risk assessment than large Gammarus.

Animal Communication↗

Laboratory simulation of a mining accident: acute toxicity, hsc/hsp70 response, and recovery from stress in Gammarus fossarum (Crustacea, Amphipoda) exposed to a pulse of cadmium.

The rate of survival and stress protein (hsc/hsp70) response were investigated in the freshwater amphipod, Gammarus fossarum Koch, 1835, during a 20-day stress and recovery experiment. Adult females and males, were separately exposed to 9 different cadmium concentrations for 5 days to simulate a short-term pulse of xenobiotics in an aquatic environment, followed by a recovery period of 15 days. In terms of mortality, females were much more sensitive to cadmium than males; 4.28 +/- 2.45 microg Cd2+/l resulted in strong effects on the rate of survival of females but not males. In both sexes, mortality occurred predominantly within the first 5 days of the recovery period. At the cellular level, cadmium induced an hsc/hsp70 response. The lower Cd2+ concentrations we used led to an induction of stress proteins while higher Cd2+ concentrations resulted in a proportionately reduced hsc/hsp70 response, most likely due to pathological damage. Surviving individuals retained their capacity to induce stress protein production in the recovery period, even if the stress protein response system was overwhelmed by cadmium during the exposure period.

Animals↗

Random amplified polymorphic DNA diversity among surface and subterranean populations of Asellus aquaticus (Crustacea: Isopoda).

The ecological and evolutionary processes leading to isolation and adaptation of cave animals compared to their surface ancestors are not yet unequivocally understood. In this study the genetic relations of four cave and three surface population of the freshwater crustacean Asellus aquaticus in the Karst region of SW Slovenia and NE Italy were assessed using RAPDs as genetic markers. The results suggest that specialized populations from two caves invaded their subterranean habitat independently, and that their morphological similarity is a result of convergent evolution. Another, less specialized cave population seems to originate from a later colonization of a cave system already inhabited by a more specialized population, but the two populations do not interbreed. This series of temporally and spatially independent invasions has generated a diversity hotspot of non-interbreeding populations of a ubiquitous freshwater crustacean, which is uniform over most of its range. Genetic variability estimated by the percentage of polymorphic RAPD fragments was similar (86-91%) in most cave and surface populations. Substantially lower values (as low as 49%) were found in two cave populations affected by heavy pollution. Two a priori groupings of populations, traditional subspecies and hydrologically connected groups, were rejected as not significant by means of nested analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). On the other hand, groupings revealed by UPGMA clustering displayed a significant component of among-group variance. An analysis of gene flow between populations using estimated migration rates confirmed these findings.

Animals↗

Argulus izintwala n. sp. (Crustacea: Branchiura) from Lake St Lucia, South Africa.

During surveys of the fish parasites of Lake St Lucia on the coast of northern KwaZulu-Natal, specimens of an hitherto undescribed argulid were found on the skin of the kelee shad Hilsa kelee (Cuvier). This, only the fourth argulid species to be found in South African coastal waters, is here described as Argulus izintwala n. sp.

Animals↗