Ugolini Alberto, Ciofini Alice
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via Romana 17, 50125, Florence, Italy.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2016 Jan;202(1):1-6. doi: 10.1007/s00359-015-1047-y. Epub 2015 Oct 28.
We investigate the role of the landscape in the zonal recovery of the Equatorial sandhopper Talorchestia martensii Weber. It is known that this species uses the sun and the magnetic compasses to return to the belt of damp sand of the beach following the shortest route (the sea-land axis). However, the sun is not always easy to use at Equatorial latitudes because of astronomical reasons (its zenithal culmination and its hourly azimuthal speed) at least during the central time of the day (around noon) and close to the equinox. Our experiments were performed in Kenya, during the equinoctial period. We tested adult individuals, belonging to Malindi (Kenya) population, in a confined environment with and without the vision of the landscape of their home beach and with the vision of the prominent landscape of a different-orientated shore (Temple Point). Releases were carried out with either natural or zeroed magnetic field. Results clearly show the importance of the landscape as an orienting factor mainly during the central hours of the day when it seems to assume a greater importance than magnetic cues.
我们研究了地形在赤道沙滩跳虾（Talorchestia martensii Weber）带状恢复中的作用。已知该物种利用太阳和磁罗盘，沿着最短路线（海陆轴线）返回海滩潮湿沙地的地带。然而，由于天文原因（其天顶中天和每小时方位速度），至少在一天中的中部时间（中午左右）以及接近春分点时，在赤道纬度地区太阳并不总是易于利用。我们的实验是在肯尼亚春分期间进行的。我们在一个封闭环境中测试了来自马林迪（肯尼亚）种群的成年个体，该环境有或没有其家乡海滩地形的视野，以及有不同方向海岸（坦普尔角）突出地形的视野。释放是在自然磁场或归零磁场下进行的。结果清楚地表明，地形作为一个定向因素非常重要，主要是在一天中的中部时间，此时它似乎比磁线索更为重要。
