Interaction between solar orientation and landscape visibility in Talitrus saltator (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

Green land and blue sea: a coloured landscape in the orientation of the sandhopperTalitrus saltator(Montagu) (Amphipoda, Talitridae)

“…cloudy days, moonless nights). Among local cues, the influence of natural or artificial landscape-based compass cues on sandhopper orientation has been frequently hypothesized and tested (Williamson, 1951;Williamson, 1954;Craig, 1973;Hartwick, 1976;Edwards and Naylor, 1987;Ugolini et al, 1986;Ugolini and Cannicci, 1991;Scapini, 1997;Scapini et al, 1997). The artificial landscape usually consisted of black rectangles of different heights occupying 180°on the periphery of a circular arena in which the sandhoppers were released (e.g.…”

“…The artificial landscape usually consisted of black rectangles of different heights occupying 180°on the periphery of a circular arena in which the sandhoppers were released (e.g. Ugolini et al, 1986). Therefore, tests of the landscape-based compass cues on sandhopper orientation were based on a difference in contrast between the two hemicycles: the landward and seaward ones.…”

Testing the Habitat Safety Hypothesis with behavioural field experiments: amphipod orientation on sandy beaches with contrasting morphodynamics

“…When removed from their burrows during daytime, these amphipods recover seawards to the burrowing zone (represented by the wet sand stripe above high tide marks) by using a sun compass as the main orientation mechanism; increasing precision is shown on beaches characterised by higher stability. In cases of low environmental stability and a more unpredictable environment, the smaller degree of sun compass precision requires that it is integrated with other cues (Ugolini et al 1986); additionally, individual variability is increasingly limited by the harsher conditions (Lerner 1954). Orientation is expressed by individuals within a population, but can be analysed as a population characteristic by considering features such as precision around the mean direction, orientation mechanisms displayed (e.g.…”

Optic flow and sea - land orientation in the sandhopper Talitrus saltator (Montagu)

“…Esch and Burns, 1995;Ronacher and Wehner, 1995;Srinivasan et al, 1997;Srinivasan et al, 2000;Esch et al, 2001). While many studies on crustaceans have addressed the physiological and behavioural aspects of optokinetic responses (Nalbach and Nalbach, 1987;Nalbach et al, 1989a;Barnes and Nalbach, 1993;Blanke et al, 1997;Barnes et al, 2002;Zeil and Hemmi, 2006), the visual ecology of sandhoppers has scarcely been considered (Ugolini et al, 1986;Ugolini et al, 2006;Forward et al, 2009;Walsh et al, 2010). All of these arthropod groups, however, are faced with different ecological conditions, which suggests that they may rely on different cues for orientation depending on the information content of their habitat (see Nalbach et al, 1989b;Nalbach, 1990).…”

“…Sandhopper y-axis orientation is based on bi- directional movements without the need for place memory: sandhoppers do not have a 'home' and are not central place foragers. These bi-directional movements are mainly guided by local cues, such as the surrounding panorama (Williamson, 1951;Williamson, 1954;Craig, 1973;Hartwick, 1976;Edwards and Naylor, 1987;Ugolini et al, 1986;Ugolini and Cannicci, 1991), and by compass cues, such as the sun, the moon and the geomagnetic field (Ugolini, 2001;Ugolini et al, 2002;Ugolini et al, 2003), whereby the directional choice of sandhoppers also makes use of the spectral differences between the landward and the seaward part of the panorama (Ugolini et al, 2006).…”