Roy: Question to you about Lysiosquilla eyesight.

[black_majik]

In this youtube video ( probably one of your students, the lab is in Berkeley) the L. Maculata hits the food dead on out of the water. Now I know there is light refraction and I was wondering if spearers ( or any stomatopod) has a special mechanism for this?

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7iUmdUhGU8&feature=related


BTW the one guy says " Is that the female? Oh maybe not?" Where there actually a pair in there?

Thanks

 

[Gonodactylus]

Well, it was my tank and my feeding stick, so I guess it was my stomatopod. Looks like some late night extracurricular filming. Given that the male broke off a dactyl spine, this is not something I would condone. This is a male/female pair that has been together for three years.

No special out of water adaptations that we know of. This type of strike would rarely happen in the wild. However, accuracy is not surprising. The animal lines up the target and makes a sweeping strike in an arc that takes it through the position of the prey. It has to get the strike in the correct plain, but distance is not an issue given the length of the dactyl.

Roy

 

[black_majik]

Uh oh, did I get somebody in trouble? Thanks for the response.