Mussels glow to scare off predators

 Ctenoides ales

FOTOGRAFÍA DE LINDSEY DOUGHERTY, UNIVERSIDAD DE CALIFORNIA

The bivalve ctenoid ales, also called electric mussel is an invertebrate that lives in the coral reefs of Indonesia and is known to generate bright reflections that appear to electric shock.

[See: A cockroach that glows in the dark]

Despite his peculiar behavior, some of them, why Lindsey Dougherty, University of California, began studying the origin of these flashes are known to issue them and found that these animals reflect light through small piece silica at the edges of its shell, and not through bioluminescence, as with other species. Now, the team says they do to threaten predators and attract prey.

"Most animals do something that costs them energy if you do not make a profit in return," said Dougherty, who presented the results of its investigation this week.

For example, "light discharges usually serve to attract a mate or a dam, and sometimes can take a defensive purpose, as in the case of venomous blue-ringed octopus."

[View images of toxic marine creatures]

Dougherty and his colleagues tested three hypotheses about the possible purpose of downloads: attract a mate to lay eggs, draw the attention of plankton that feed or send a warning to potential predators.

Thus, food introduced, members of the opposite sex and fake predators in tanks with mussels in captivity to observe their reaction. They found no evidence that the lights serve to attract potential mates, as the view of the bivalve is too weak and does not seem to detect the lights.

[Related: The pygmy shark lights to hide]

The other two arguments, however, it paid off: to bring a predator to a false mussel, increased the frequency flashes, like introducing plankton, although not of the same intensity.

Moreover, the team was surprised to find sulfur in the tentacles and the fleshy protruding part of the bivalve, a nasty substance for predators, and tried to introduce a marina mantis, a very aggressive crustacean in the tank with the mussels. After observing the behavior of the mantis, they discovered that the area wiped his mouth and recoiled bivalves, suggesting that the predator ignores the flashes to test the sulfur unpleasant taste.

[See also: The mantis marine use light to camouflage]