The use of multisensory cues to locate mates can increase an organism's success by acting as a back-up plan whenone system fails, by providing additional information to the receiver, and by increasing their abilit...The use of multisensory cues to locate mates can increase an organism's success by acting as a back-up plan whenone system fails, by providing additional information to the receiver, and by increasing their ability to detect mates using sensesthat have different ranges in a variable aquatic environment. In this contribution we review the sensory cues that male horseshoecrabs Limulus polyphemus are known to use when locating mates and then provide new data that shed light on this subject. Duringthe breeding season, females migrate into shore during high tides to spawn. Males attach to females as they approach thebeach or are attracted to pairs already spawning. Vision is well established as an important cue in attracting males. Althoughchemoreception is well known in other marine arthropods, and horseshoe crabs have the anatomy available, there are few studieson chemical cues in this species. Experiments are presented here that provide evidence for chemical cue use. We show that the attraction,and retention, of attached and satellite males to actively spawning females and mating pairs involves multimodal展开更多
基金supported by the National Science Foundation IOB-0641750
文摘The use of multisensory cues to locate mates can increase an organism's success by acting as a back-up plan whenone system fails, by providing additional information to the receiver, and by increasing their ability to detect mates using sensesthat have different ranges in a variable aquatic environment. In this contribution we review the sensory cues that male horseshoecrabs Limulus polyphemus are known to use when locating mates and then provide new data that shed light on this subject. Duringthe breeding season, females migrate into shore during high tides to spawn. Males attach to females as they approach thebeach or are attracted to pairs already spawning. Vision is well established as an important cue in attracting males. Althoughchemoreception is well known in other marine arthropods, and horseshoe crabs have the anatomy available, there are few studieson chemical cues in this species. Experiments are presented here that provide evidence for chemical cue use. We show that the attraction,and retention, of attached and satellite males to actively spawning females and mating pairs involves multimodal
