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Neuromuscular correlates of rhythmical cheliped flexion behavior in hermit crabs

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Summary

  1. 1.

    Cheliped muscle activity during rhythmic cleaning behavior of freely-moving hermit crabs was recorded with implanted, insulated leads. The dactyl opener and closer muscles operated in a reciprocal fashion, while the propus stretcher fired simultaneously with the bender muscle during the flexion phase (Fig. 2). Propodite extension appeared to occur passively.

  2. 2.

    The following parameters were measured in a quantitative analysis of electromyograms: (1) burst duration, (2) cycle time between onset of sequential bursts, (3) number of impulses/burst, (4) mean impulse frequency within a burst, (5) latency between onset and termination of antagonistic muscle bursts. Burst duration and number of impulses/burst showed significant positive correlations with cycle time (Figs. 6, 8A, B), while the mean impulse frequency varied inversely with cycle time (Fig. 8C, D). Both burst duration and cycle time increased for sequential flexions within a train (Fig. 11A). Antagonistic muscle latencies did not vary as cycle time and burst duration changed (Fig. 10).

  3. 3.

    The motor program for propodite flexion-extension appears to operate as an analog of a relaxation oscillator because the silent period following each bender hurst remained independent of burst duration (Figs. 7, 11B) and instantaneous frequency plots of single bender bursts showed an asymmetrical (ramp-like) frequency change within each cycle (Fig. 9).

  4. 4.

    The oscillating drive which excites the bender motoneurons was modelled (Fig. 12 A) by five linear equations which relate the following burst parameters to cycle time: duration, initial impulse frequency, maximum impulse frequency, time to maximum frequency and silent period between bursts. All of these parameters were correlated with cycle time (Fig. 12B).

  5. 5.

    The possible evolution of the motor programs for the two forms of cheliped flexion behavior, feeding and cleaning, is discussed. The single-flexion feeding motor program is considered to be the basic unit from which the multi-flexion cleaning motor program evolved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA

    Laurence H. Field

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Texas, 78712, Austin, Texas, USA

    Laurence H. Field

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  1. Laurence H. Field
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Additional information

This work was supported by a predoctoral PHS Training Grant, No. 2 TO1 GM00336-11. I would like to thank Dr. Graham Hoyle for providing advice, encouragement and facilities during the progress of this research. The excellent technical assistance of Mr. Lee Vernon, and the critical reading of this manuscript by Dr. George Bittner, are both gratefully acknowledged.

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Field, L.H. Neuromuscular correlates of rhythmical cheliped flexion behavior in hermit crabs. J. Comp. Physiol. 92, 415–441 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00694710

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