Behavioral observations of the amphipod Melita palmata (Montagu, 1804) under controlled conditions in laboratory.

BAZTERRICA, M. C.; ALVAREZ, GRACIELA; BARÓN, PEDRO J.; OBENAT, SANDRA

Mar del Plata

Encuentro; X Encuentro de Biólogos en Red; 2015

Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNMdP

The study of animal behavior contributeswith the understanding of the ecological dynamics, both at the population andcommunity levels. Recently, the role of behavioral traits in invasive processeshas received increasing attention. In Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon (37° 32? S), the invasive reefforming polychaete, Ficopomatusenigmaticus (Fauvel, 1923), is widely distributed. Reefs constitute patchesof hard substrate with more structural complexity than the adjacent softsediment. This difference in habitat structure might affect several populationparameters of macrofaunal species, which in turn, might also affect macrofaunalbehavioral responses. In this context, we proposed a study case to investigatevariations in behavioral responses related to invasive processes, by comparing thebehavior of the amphipod Melita palmatabetween sites modified and not modified by F. enigmaticus. Here, we show theresults of the evaluation of an adequate aquarium conditions for the manipulation,survival, growth, reproduction and behavioral observations of M. palmata. We collected individuals of M. palmata from the field, and determinedconditions of holding, feeding and isolation of individuals; we developedmaintenance aquaria as reservoir of living amphipods, together with aquaria forthe different categories that we could identified: males, females, gravidfemales and juveniles; we identified and quantified the following behaviortraits: swim, exploration, crawled, feeding, and the formation of precopulatorymating pairs and made an habitat preference experiment; we cultured gravidfemales, and offsprings to sizes possible to be sexed; We made an habitatpreference experiment. Our results show that our procedures to maintain M. palmata in aquarium have the capacityto provide individuals in good conditions for being used in experimentalroutines, including it reproduction. We observed that males had differenthabitat preferences that females since males spend more timeinside reefs than exploring in the sediment as females. These differences couldaffect the abundance and distribution of the individuals of in the field and arethe first step in the understanding of the behavior of M. palmata in Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon.