Activity Patterns, Diet, and Shelter Site Use for Two Species of Moray Eels, Gymnothorax moringa and Gymnothorax vicinus, in Belize

Young, Robert F.; Winn, Howard E.

doi:10.1643/0045-8511(2003)003[0044:apdass]2.0.co;2

Cited by 42 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Berry (1971) observed in South Africa that moray eels were attracted to the location of stridulation by disturbed spiny lobster P. homarus and could attack intruders. Moray eels are known to be predators of octopus where they occur together in the Caribbean (Young & Winn 2003). Moray eels are commonly seen co-denning with spiny lobsters but apparently prey upon them only rarely (Kanciruk 1980;Young & Winn 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moray eels are known to be predators of octopus where they occur together in the Caribbean (Young & Winn 2003). Moray eels are commonly seen co-denning with spiny lobsters but apparently prey upon them only rarely (Kanciruk 1980;Young & Winn 2003). Were eels attracted to lobster stridulation after a capture, the resulting encounter between eel and octopus might allow a captured lobster to escape.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sound production in Caribbean spiny lobsterPanulirus argusand its role in escape during predatory attack byOctopus briareus

Bouwma

Herrnkind

2009

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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The production of sound (commonly called stridulation) in spiny lobsters when disturbed by humans is well documented but its function during encounters with natural predators remains largely undocumented. Caribbean spiny lobsters Panulirus argus stridulate during tailflip escape attempts in response to grasping of the carapace or antennae by human divers. We hypothesised that stridulating may be effective against predators like octopus which grasp the carapace and antennae during attacks in a way similar to human divers. In this study, we examined defensive sound production during nighttime encounters with Caribbean reef octopus Octopus briareus to determine how P. argus use stridulation and whether it improves survival. In staged nighttime encounters with octopus, lobsters stridulated both during grasping attacks by octopus and after being captured and restrained. Stridulating lobsters escaped from attacking octopuses more frequently and remained uncaptured longer during encounters than experimentally muted individuals. We discuss ecological and evolutionary implications for these data in lobster species that produce sounds when grasped.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound production in Caribbean spiny lobsterPanulirus argusand its role in escape during predatory attack byOctopus briareus

Bouwma

Herrnkind

2009

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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“…Biting has been suggested as a strategy for overcoming restrictions that maximum gape size places on diet (Alfaro et al, 2001). Studies of moray stomach contents indicate that they prey upon cephalopods, crabs, shrimp and fishes, often consuming relatively large prey items (Randall, 1967;Randall, 1985;Young and Winn, 2003). Suction feeding may be of limited effectiveness for capturing particularly large prey that can easily escape the flow field in front of a moray's mouth.…”

Section: The Journal Of Experimental Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biting releases constraints on moray eel feeding kinematics

Mehta

Wainwright

2007

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY We present an analysis of prey capture functional morphology in eels by comparing two species of moray eels, Muraena retifera and Echidna nebulosa (Family Muraenidae), to the American eel Anguilla rostrata (Family Anguillidae). The skulls of both moray species exhibited extreme reductions of several prominent components of the suction-feeding mechanism, including the hyoid bar, the sternohyoideus muscle and the pectoral girdle. Associated with these anatomical modifications, morays showed no evidence of using suction during prey capture. From 59 video sequences of morays feeding on pieces of cut squid we saw no hyoid depression and no movement of prey toward the mouth aperture during the strike, a widely used indicator of suction-induced water flow. This was in contrast to A. rostrata, which exhibited a robust hyoid, sternohyoideus muscle and pectoral girdle, and used suction to draw prey into its mouth. Average prey capture time in morays, about 500 ms, was roughly 10 times longer than in A. rostrata, and morays frequently reversed the direction of jaw and head rotation in the midst of the strike. We tested whether the absence of suction feeding reduces temporal constraints on feeding kinematics, permitting greater variance in traits that characterize timing and the extent of motion in the neurocranium, by comparing moray eel species with A. rostrata,two Centrarchids and a cichlid. Kinematic variance was roughly 5 times higher in morays than the suction-feeding species. Prey capture by suction demands a rapid, highly coordinated series of cranial movements and the loss of this mechanism appears to have permitted slower, more variable prey capture kinematics in morays. The alternative prey capture strategy in morays, biting,may be tied to their success as predators in the confined spaces of reef crevices where they hunt for cephalopods, crustaceans and fish.

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“…Morays are generalist predators and are certainly able to consume spiny lobsters (Lipcius et al 1998, Weiss et al 2006), yet spiny lobsters are usually not present in stomach contents of morays (Hiatt & Strassburg 1960, Randall 1967, Chave & Randall 1971, Young & Winn 2003. If morays switch among prey species depending on their relative abundance as most generalist predators do , Rudolf 2008, these findings may simply reflect a lower local abundance of spiny lobsters relative to other types of prey.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, morays may affect lobsters indirectly (by intimidation) rather than by consumption (Preisser et al 2005). However, morays and lobsters often share crevices without showing any obvious interactions (Berry 1971, Abrams et al 1983, LozanoÁlvarez & Spanier 1997, Young & Winn 2003, Weiss et al 2006. Berry (1971) considered this occurrence as a potential mutualism, wherein the lobster would be protected from other predators (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of shelter availability on interactions between Caribbean spiny lobsters and moray eels: implications for artificial lobster enhancement

Lozano‐Álvarez¹,

Briones‐Fourzán²,

Álvarez‐Filip³

et al. 2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus is a valuable fishing resource, but local populations may be limited by availability of crevice shelter on juvenile (seagrass) habitats. This has prompted research into the potential density enhancement of juvenile lobsters with 'casitas', large (1.1 m 2 surface area) but low-lying (3.8 cm entrance height) artificial shelters that exclude large predators. Moray eels (Muraenidae), however, fit into casitas and could therefore pose a threat to lobster enhancement. In a shelter-poor reef lagoon, we examined potential interactions between juvenile lobsters and the locally dominant morays Gymnothorax vicinus and G. moringa in the absence (four 1 ha control sites) and presence of casitas (five 1 ha 'casita sites', each with 10 casitas), before (6 surveys) and after (22 surveys) deployment. Morays and lobsters did not interact as predator-prey, as morays neither consumed nor intimidated co-occurring lobsters. Rather, the 2 taxa appeared to compete for limited shelter on the reef lagoon, as suggested by a significant increase in density and mean size of both taxa on casita sites after deployment. Casitas significantly increased cohabitation of morays and lobsters, yet they tended to co-occur less often than expected by chance, but this result likely reflects behavioral differences between the highly gregarious, more numerous lobsters and the typically solitary, cannibalistic morays. Our study exemplifies the influence of habitat complexity on the nature of interspecific interactions and shows that G. vicinus and G. moringa would not pose a threat to lobster enhancement with casitas.

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Activity Patterns, Diet, and Shelter Site Use for Two Species of Moray Eels, Gymnothorax moringa and Gymnothorax vicinus, in Belize

Cited by 42 publications

References 9 publications

Sound production in Caribbean spiny lobsterPanulirus argusand its role in escape during predatory attack byOctopus briareus

Sound production in Caribbean spiny lobsterPanulirus argusand its role in escape during predatory attack byOctopus briareus

Biting releases constraints on moray eel feeding kinematics

Influence of shelter availability on interactions between Caribbean spiny lobsters and moray eels: implications for artificial lobster enhancement

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