Following the invisible trail: kinematic analysis of mate-tracking in the copepod Temora longicornis.

We have analysed the fine-scale kinematics of movement of male and female copepods, Temora longicornis, to resolve how these small animals find their mates. Location of the trail initially involves rapid random turning and high rates of directional change. Males subsequently increase their rate of movement as they follow the trail, and execute a regular pattern of counter turns in both x,z and y,z planes to stay near or within the central axis of the odour field. Pursuit behaviour of males is strongly associated with female swimming behaviour, suggesting that quantifiable variations in the structure of the odour signal released by females affects male tracking. The behavioural components of mate tracking in Temora are very similar to those of other animals that employ chemically mediated orientation in their search for mates and food, and we conclude that male Temora find their mates using chemoperception. The kinematic analysis indicates both sequential and simultaneous taxis mechanisms are used by Temora to follow the odour signal. This, in turn, indicates that rather than responding to a diffuse plume, males are following a signal more accurately characterized as a chemical trail, and copepods appear to use mechanisms that are similar to those employed by trail-following terrestrial insects such as ants. While Temora expresses similar behaviours to those of a variety of chemosensory organisms, the ability to track a three-dimensional odour trail appears unique, and possibly depends on the persistence of fluid-borne odour signals created in low Reynolds number hydrodynamic regimes.