Reyes Blengini Federico, Tassino Bettina, Passos Carlos
Sección Etología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, Montevideo, 11400, Uruguay.
Sección Etología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, Montevideo, 11400, Uruguay; Departamento de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, Montevideo, 11400, Uruguay.
Behav Processes. 2018 Oct;155:33-37. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.08.007. Epub 2017 Aug 18.
Olfactory abilities to discriminate conspecifics can be determinant to prevent hybridization between closely-related species in many taxa. Annual killifish Austrolebias reicherti and A. charrua are sister species inhabiting temporary ponds within Eastern Wetlands of Uruguay with an overlapping area in their distributions. Herein, we assess species recognition sensory abilities in females of A. reicherti in classic dual-choice tests. We exposed two different groups of females, one to olfactory but not visual cues, and the other to visual but not olfactory cues, from conspecific and heterospecific A. charrua males. Austrolebias reicherti females preferred conspecific males when based solely on olfactory cues, and showed no discrimination when exposed to visual traits only. Austrolebias inhabit shallow, muddy and highly turbid ponds that may promote the use of non-visual cues. Although preliminary, the results of this study suggest the importance of chemical communication in species mate recognition in A. reicherti and points annual fishes as a promising model to study the role of mate choice in reproductive isolation and speciation.
在许多分类群中，辨别同种个体的嗅觉能力对于防止近缘物种之间的杂交可能具有决定性作用。一年生鳉鱼赖氏澳鳉（Austrolebias reicherti）和查鲁澳鳉（A. charrua）是姐妹物种，栖息于乌拉圭东部湿地的临时池塘中，其分布区域有重叠。在此，我们通过经典的双选测试评估了赖氏澳鳉雌鱼的物种识别感官能力。我们让两组不同的雌鱼分别接触来自同种和异种查鲁澳鳉雄鱼的两种不同线索，一组接触嗅觉线索但不接触视觉线索，另一组接触视觉线索但不接触嗅觉线索。仅基于嗅觉线索时，赖氏澳鳉雌鱼更喜欢同种雄鱼，而仅接触视觉特征时则没有表现出辨别能力。澳鳉栖息于浅的、泥泞且浑浊度高的池塘，这可能促使它们使用非视觉线索。尽管这项研究是初步的，但结果表明化学通讯在赖氏澳鳉物种配偶识别中具有重要性，并指出一年生鱼类是研究配偶选择在生殖隔离和物种形成中作用的一个有前景的模型。
