Cargando…

Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish

Cases where animals use controlled illumination to improve vision are rare and thus far limited to chemiluminescence, which only functions in darkness. This constraint was recently relaxed by studies on Tripterygion delaisi, a small triplefin that redirects sunlight instead. By reflecting light side...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Santon, Matteo, Bitton, Pierre-Paul, Dehm, Jasha, Fritsch, Roland, Harant, Ulrike K., Anthes, Nils, Michiels, Nico K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7015323/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31964304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2292
_version_ 1783496785511055360
author Santon, Matteo
Bitton, Pierre-Paul
Dehm, Jasha
Fritsch, Roland
Harant, Ulrike K.
Anthes, Nils
Michiels, Nico K.
author_facet Santon, Matteo
Bitton, Pierre-Paul
Dehm, Jasha
Fritsch, Roland
Harant, Ulrike K.
Anthes, Nils
Michiels, Nico K.
author_sort Santon, Matteo
collection PubMed
description Cases where animals use controlled illumination to improve vision are rare and thus far limited to chemiluminescence, which only functions in darkness. This constraint was recently relaxed by studies on Tripterygion delaisi, a small triplefin that redirects sunlight instead. By reflecting light sideways with its iris, it has been suggested to induce and detect eyeshine in nearby micro-prey. Here, we test whether ‘diurnal active photolocation’ also improves T. delaisi's ability to detect the cryptobenthic sit-and-wait predator Scorpaena porcus, a scorpionfish with strong daytime retroreflective eyeshine. Three independent experiments revealed that triplefins in which light redirection was artificially suppressed approached scorpionfish significantly closer than two control treatments before moving away to a safer distance. Visual modelling confirmed that ocular light redirection by a triplefin is sufficiently strong to generate a luminance increase in scorpionfish eyeshine that can be perceived by the triplefin over 6–8 cm under average conditions. These distances coincide well with the closest approaches observed. We conclude that light redirection by small, diurnal fish significantly contributes to their ability to visually detect cryptic predators, strongly widening the conditions under which active sensing with light is feasible. We discuss the consequences for fish eye evolution.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7015323
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher The Royal Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-70153232020-03-03 Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish Santon, Matteo Bitton, Pierre-Paul Dehm, Jasha Fritsch, Roland Harant, Ulrike K. Anthes, Nils Michiels, Nico K. Proc Biol Sci Behaviour Cases where animals use controlled illumination to improve vision are rare and thus far limited to chemiluminescence, which only functions in darkness. This constraint was recently relaxed by studies on Tripterygion delaisi, a small triplefin that redirects sunlight instead. By reflecting light sideways with its iris, it has been suggested to induce and detect eyeshine in nearby micro-prey. Here, we test whether ‘diurnal active photolocation’ also improves T. delaisi's ability to detect the cryptobenthic sit-and-wait predator Scorpaena porcus, a scorpionfish with strong daytime retroreflective eyeshine. Three independent experiments revealed that triplefins in which light redirection was artificially suppressed approached scorpionfish significantly closer than two control treatments before moving away to a safer distance. Visual modelling confirmed that ocular light redirection by a triplefin is sufficiently strong to generate a luminance increase in scorpionfish eyeshine that can be perceived by the triplefin over 6–8 cm under average conditions. These distances coincide well with the closest approaches observed. We conclude that light redirection by small, diurnal fish significantly contributes to their ability to visually detect cryptic predators, strongly widening the conditions under which active sensing with light is feasible. We discuss the consequences for fish eye evolution. The Royal Society 2020-01-29 2020-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7015323/ /pubmed/31964304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2292 Text en © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Behaviour
Santon, Matteo
Bitton, Pierre-Paul
Dehm, Jasha
Fritsch, Roland
Harant, Ulrike K.
Anthes, Nils
Michiels, Nico K.
Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
title Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
title_full Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
title_fullStr Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
title_full_unstemmed Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
title_short Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
title_sort redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish
topic Behaviour
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7015323/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31964304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2292
work_keys_str_mv AT santonmatteo redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish
AT bittonpierrepaul redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish
AT dehmjasha redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish
AT fritschroland redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish
AT harantulrikek redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish
AT anthesnils redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish
AT michielsnicok redirectionofambientlightimprovespredatordetectioninadiurnalfish