Ekerholm Mattias, Hallberg Eric
Department of Cell and Organism Biology, Lund University, Zoology Building, Lund, Sweden.
J Chem Ecol. 2005 Aug;31(8):1845-64. doi: 10.1007/s10886-005-5930-9.
The European shore crab Carcinus maenas is considered to rely on a female pheromone when mating. Evidence, however, is scarce on how the urine pheromone in itself affects males. We investigated male primer and releaser responses to female pheromones with methods that minimized effects from females, delivering female urine either as a pump-generated plume or deposited on a polyurethane sponge. We delivered the pheromone at different concentrations in far, near, and close/contact range to get a picture of how distance affects behavioral response. Our results show that substances in premolt female urine (PMU) function as primer and potent short-range releaser pheromones. Based on the olfactometer and sponge tests, we conclude that PMU stimulus in itself is sufficient to elicit increased search and mating-specific behaviors such as posing, posing search, cradle carrying, and stroking. Pheromone concentrations do not seem to be important for attenuating search and posing as long as the level is above a certain threshold concentration. Instead, pheromone levels seem to play a role in male acceptance of females, recruiting more males to respond, and generating better responses with increasing concentration.
欧洲绿蟹（Carcinus maenas）在交配时被认为依赖雌性信息素。然而，关于尿液信息素本身如何影响雄性的证据却很少。我们采用了将雌性影响降至最低的方法，通过泵产生的羽流或沉积在聚氨酯海绵上的方式来传递雌性尿液，以此研究雄性对雌性信息素的启动和释放反应。我们在远、近和近距离/接触范围内以不同浓度传递信息素，以了解距离如何影响行为反应。我们的结果表明，蜕皮前雌性尿液（PMU）中的物质起到启动信息素和强效短程释放信息素的作用。基于嗅觉计和海绵测试，我们得出结论，PMU刺激本身足以引发更多的搜索行为和特定交配行为，如摆姿势、摆姿势搜索、抱卵和抚摸。只要信息素浓度高于某个阈值浓度，其浓度似乎对减少搜索和摆姿势行为并不重要。相反，信息素水平似乎在雄性对雌性的接受方面发挥作用，吸引更多雄性做出反应，并随着浓度增加产生更好的反应。
