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Costs and Benefits of Swarming Behaviour in Mysids: Does Orientation and Position in the Swarm Matter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

D.A. Ritz  and
E.B. Metillo
D.A. Ritz
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Box 252–05, GPO Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
E.B. Metillo
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Box 252–05, GPO Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
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Extract

Mysids (Paramesopodopsis rufa) were tethered in both swarm and school formations in a flow tank to test whether food capture was influenced by orientation or position in the aggregation. Neither orientation nor position exerted a significant influence on food capture success. However, the two formations differed in that certain positions in the polarized configuration were significantly correlated. In addition individuals at the front of the aggregation captured more food (though non-significantly) with a significantly higher degree of variation. This experiment has demonstrated the feasibility of measuring food capture success in different locations within an aggregation of crustaceans.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , August 1998 , pp. 1011 - 1014
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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