Jägers Peter, Herlitze Stefan
Department of General Zoology and Neurobiology, Institute of Biology and Biotechnology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801, Bochum, Germany.
Front Zool. 2025 Jan 13;22(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s12983-024-00555-x.
During their nighttime shoaling, the flashlight fish Anomalops katoptron produce fascinating, bioluminescent blink patterns, which have been related to the localization of food, determination of nearest neighbor distance, and initiation of the shoal's movement direction. Information transfer e.g., via alarm signals is an important aspect in group living species especially when being under threat. In dark environments, bioluminescence has the potential to accurately transfer such information. Under threat A. katoptron show increased swimming speeds and a higher group cohesion accompanied by fast blink frequencies.
In this study we used a two-choice paradigm to test the preferences for typical blink characteristics e.g., frequency and duration. Our data show that individuals decided within short periods (< 4 s) for faster blink frequencies of artificial light organs and the preference for the higher blink frequencies became more pronounced as the difference between the presented frequencies increased. The preference correlated with the frequency rather than the duration.
Our study suggests that fast, bioluminescent blinks of light organs lead to aggregations of A. katoptron.
在夜间群聚时，闪光鱼（Anomalops katoptron）会产生迷人的生物发光眨眼模式，这与食物定位、最近邻距离的确定以及鱼群移动方向的启动有关。信息传递，例如通过警报信号，是群居物种的一个重要方面，尤其是在受到威胁时。在黑暗环境中，生物发光有准确传递此类信息的潜力。受到威胁时，闪光鱼会提高游泳速度并增强群体凝聚力，同时眨眼频率加快。
在本研究中，我们使用双选范式来测试对典型眨眼特征（如频率和持续时间）的偏好。我们的数据表明，个体在短时间内（<4秒）会选择人造发光器官更快的眨眼频率，并且随着所呈现频率之间差异的增加，对更高眨眼频率的偏好变得更加明显。这种偏好与频率而非持续时间相关。
我们的研究表明，发光器官快速的生物发光眨眼会导致闪光鱼聚集。
