Titus Benjamin M, Vondriska Clayton, Daly Marymegan
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 1315 Kinnear Road, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2017 Apr 26;4(4):170078. doi: 10.1098/rsos.170078. eCollection 2017 Apr.
Cleaner shrimps are ecologically important members of coral reef communities, but for many species, cleaner status (i.e. dedicated, facultative and mimic), clientele and ecological role remain unverified or described. On Caribbean coral reefs, the spotted 'cleaner' shrimp forms symbioses with sea anemones that may serve as cleaning stations for reef fishes. The status of this species as a cleaner is ambiguous: only a single cleaning interaction has been reported, and in the only test of its efficacy as a cleaner, it did not effectively reduce parasite loads from surgeonfish. It has subsequently been hypothesized by other authors to be a cleaner mimic. We conduct a comparative investigation of cleaning behaviour between and the ecologically similar, closely related, dedicated cleaner shrimp in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. We provide the first detailed field observations on cleaning behaviour for and test multiple behavioural expectations surrounding mimicry in cleaning symbioses. We found that regularly signals its availability to clean, client fishes visit regularly and the shrimp does engage in true symbiotic cleaning interactions, but these are brief and our video reflects a species that appears hesitant to engage posing clients. In comparison to , stations had significantly fewer total visits and cleans, and 50% of all cleaning interactions at stations were shorter than 10 s in total duration. Our behavioural observations confirm that is a true cleaner shrimp; we reject the hypothesis of mimicry. However, investigation is needed to confirm whether this species is a dedicated or facultative cleaner. We hypothesize that has a specialized ecological role as a cleaner species, compared to .
清洁虾是珊瑚礁群落中具有重要生态意义的成员，但对于许多物种而言，其清洁身份（即专职、兼性和拟态）、客户群体以及生态作用仍未得到证实或详细描述。在加勒比海的珊瑚礁上，斑点“清洁”虾与海葵形成共生关系，这些海葵可能充当礁栖鱼类的清洁站。该物种作为清洁虾的身份尚不明确：仅报道过一次清洁互动，而且在唯一一次对其清洁效果的测试中，它并未有效降低刺尾鱼的寄生虫负荷。随后其他作者推测它是一种清洁拟态者。我们在荷属安的列斯群岛的库拉索岛，对其与生态相似、亲缘关系密切的专职清洁虾进行了清洁行为的比较研究。我们首次提供了关于该物种清洁行为的详细实地观察结果，并测试了围绕清洁共生中拟态的多种行为预期。我们发现，该物种会定期发出可提供清洁服务的信号，客户鱼类会定期来访，并且这种虾确实会进行真正的共生清洁互动，但这些互动很短暂，我们的视频显示该物种在面对客户时似乎有所犹豫。与专职清洁虾相比，该物种所在清洁站的总访问量和清洁次数明显更少，且该物种所在清洁站所有清洁互动中有50%的总时长不到10秒。我们的行为观察证实该物种是真正的清洁虾；我们否定了拟态假说。然而，需要进一步研究以确认该物种是专职还是兼性清洁虾。我们推测，与专职清洁虾相比，该物种作为清洁物种具有特殊的生态作用。
