Movement patterns of the epizoic limpet Lottia tenuisculpta on two host snails Omphalius nigerrimus and Reishia clavigera

ABSTRACT

The tiny epizoic limpet Lottia tenuisculpta lives on rocky surfaces and shells of the snails Omphalius nigerrimus and Reishia clavigera. The movement patterns of the limpet on host snails was observed during 24 h under controlled laboratory conditions. A specific behaviour, referred to as returning behaviour and reminiscent of homing behaviour, was observed in seven out of 20 individuals, and two out of 15 individuals on O. nigerrimus and R. clavigera, respectively. Rotation behaviour, in which limpets changed the direction of the body by one hundred and eighty degrees without changing the position on host snails, was also observed very frequently (17 out of 20 individuals on O. nigerrimus and 10 out of 15 and R. clavigera). This is the first report of such a behaviour. The potential role of this behaviour in creating home scars is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Homing behaviour
• rotation behaviour
• home scar
• Patellogastropoda
• epizoite

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. D.J. Colgan, Ms. F.J. Paran and anonymous reviewers for making many useful comments to improve the manuscript. This work was financially supported by a Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KAKENHI (grant numbers; 26800265, 26291077) to T.N. from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by a Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KAKENHI (grant numbers; 26800265, 26291077) to T.N. from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science.