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Temporal organization of swimming activity inSarsia tubulosa M. Sars (Hydrozoa)

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Summary

  1. 1.

    Time series analysis of the occurrence of swimming activity inSarsia medusae was undertaken to determine the type(s) of organization underlying this variable behavior.

  2. 2.

    WhenSarsia spend less than 25% of the time swimming, the duration of a swim bout is a good predictor of when subsequent bouts will start. In more active animals, the duration of the pauses between swim bouts is a better predictor of when swim bouts will start.

  3. 3.

    Fourier analysis shows that some animals (7/23) have clear rhythms in their swimming activity, with periods of 40–200 s.

  4. 4.

    The shape of the spectrogram remained similar for an individual animal for up to three days.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, 53706, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Janet L. Leonard

  2. Friday Harbor Laboratories, 98250, Friday Harbor, Washington, USA

    Janet L. Leonard

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  1. Janet L. Leonard
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I would like to thank the staff of Friday Harbor Laboratories and the director Dr. A.O.D. Willows for their assistance over the three seasons I worked there. In particular Richard DeStaffany was invaluable in keeping the video equipment running. Gordon R. Stephenson helped me with computer programming during the early stages of the work. Bruce Karsh helped a great deal with the programming and wrote two subroutines for the FFT work. Timothy Allen (NSF DEB 78-07-546) provided computer funds for the latter stages of the analysis. Stanley I. Dodson and Jeffrey R. Baylis provided invaluable discussions, encouragement and sugestions on preparation of the manuscript.

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Leonard, J.L. Temporal organization of swimming activity inSarsia tubulosa M. Sars (Hydrozoa). J. Comp. Physiol. 136, 219–225 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657536

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657536

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