Aggressive mimicry of the cleaner wrasse by Aspidontus taeniatus functions mainly for small blennies
Aggressive mimicry of the cleaner wrasse by Aspidontus taeniatus functions mainly for small blennies
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/eth.12743
复制
发表时间：
2018-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Kuwamura, Tetsuo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fujisawa, Misaki;Sakai, Yoichi;Kuwamura, Tetsuo
仿Blenny Aspidontus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard因其在颜色和形状上与青少年和成年清洁工濑鱼Labroides dimidiatus（Valenciennes）相似而闻名。由于包括食鱼动物在内的各种珊瑚鱼积极接近清洁工濑鱼，通过摆姿势来寻求清洁，因此这种相似性有两种类型的好处，即保护性模仿和攻击性模仿。在攻击性拟态中，拟态鱼有相当多的机会在被欺骗的鱼类摆出姿势时咬鳍，但一些研究证实，咬鳍似乎不是自然界中鱼的主要摄食策略。在这里，我们研究了喂养策略，包括鳍咬的模仿鱼的身体大小在现场观察调查中，日本冲绳的珊瑚礁。据观察，该鱼主要以四种食物为食：圣诞树蠕虫的触角、钻孔蛤的外套膜边缘、豆娘鱼巢中的底层卵和鱼类的鳍。随着体长的增加，咬鳍取食频率显著降低，而卵捕食频率显著增加。当捕食卵时，青鱼会受到护卵鱼的猛烈攻击，但通常会通过形成一个进食群体来成功地袭击它们的巢穴。当以咬鳍方式进食时，鱼攻击猎物而不进行任何清洁。鳍咬的比例是相当高的小尺寸的blennies，这表明依赖于这种喂养策略，因为难以进行风险的鸡蛋捕食。因此，我们的研究结果表明，模仿鱼利用侵略性的模仿，只有当它是小的替代喂养策略。
The mimic blenny Aspidontus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard is well known for its resemblance to the juvenile and adult cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus (Valenciennes) in colour and shape. As various reef fishes including piscivores actively approach the cleaner wrasse to solicit cleaning by posing, two types of benefits have been suggested for this resemblance, that is, protective mimicry and aggressive mimicry. In aggressive mimicry, the mimic blenny is supposed to have considerable opportunities to bite the fin of deceived fishes when they pose, but some studies have confirmed that fin biting does not seem to be the main feeding tactic in the blenny in nature. Here, we examined the feeding tactics including fin biting by the mimic blenny in relation to its body size in a field observational survey in the coral reefs of Sesoko Island, Okinawa, Japan. The blenny was observed feeding mainly on four food items: the tentacles of Christmas tree worms, the mantle edges of boring clams, the demersal eggs in damselfishes' nests and the fins of fishes. The feeding frequency by fin biting significantly decreased with body size, while that by egg predation significantly increased with body size of the blenny. When predating on eggs, the blenny was vigorously attacked by egg-guarding fish, but often succeeded in raiding their nests by forming a feeding group. When feeding by fin biting, the blenny attacked prey fish without performing any cleaning. The ratio of fin biting was considerably higher in small-sized blennies, suggesting reliance on this feeding tactic because of a difficulty in conducting a risky egg predation. Thus, our results suggest that the mimic blenny utilizes aggressive mimicry only when it is small as an alternative feeding tactic.