Physics and Biology Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa, 904-0945, Japan.
Department of Art and Design, University of Minnesota Duluth, 1201 Ordean Ct., Duluth, MN, 55812, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 28;12(1):5227. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-09209-6.
Coleoid cephalopods camouflage on timescales of seconds to match their visual surroundings. To date, studies of cephalopod camouflage-to-substrate have been focused primarily on benthic cuttlefish and octopus, because they are readily found sitting on the substrate. In contrast to benthic cephalopods, oval squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana species complex) are semi-pelagic animals that spend most of their time in the water column. In this study, we demonstrate that in captivity, S. lessoniana Sp.2 (Shiro-ika, white-squid) from the Okinawa archipelago, Japan, adapts the coloration of their skin using their chromatophores according to the background substrate. We show that if the animal moves between substrates of different reflectivity, the body patterning is changed to match. Chromatophore matching to substrate has not been reported in any loliginid cephalopod under laboratory conditions. Adaptation of the chromatophore system to the bottom substrate in the laboratory is a novel experimental finding that establishes oval squid as laboratory model animals for further research on camouflage.
头足类软体动物可以在数秒内根据视觉环境进行伪装。迄今为止，有关头足类动物与基底伪装的研究主要集中在底栖乌贼和章鱼上，因为它们很容易被发现栖息在基底上。与底栖头足类动物不同，卵形鱿鱼（Sepioteuthis lessoniana 物种复合体）是半洄游动物，它们大部分时间都在水柱中度过。在这项研究中，我们证明在圈养环境下，来自日本冲绳群岛的 S. lessoniana Sp.2（Shiro-ika，白鱿鱼）可以根据基底背景使用其色素细胞来调整皮肤的颜色。我们发现，如果动物在不同反射率的基底之间移动，身体图案会发生变化以匹配。在实验室条件下，尚未有任何蛸形目头足类动物报告过色素细胞匹配基底的情况。在实验室中，色素细胞系统对底质的适应是一个新的实验发现，这使卵形鱿鱼成为进一步研究伪装的实验室模型动物。
