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High-Speed Video Analysis of the Escape Responses of the Copepod Acartia tonsa to Shadows

¹ Marine Science Institute, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, Texas 78373
² Bekesy Laboratory of Neurobiology, Pacific Biomedical Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1993 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:buskey{at}utmsi.utexas.edu

The copepod Acartia tonsa exhibits a vigorous escape jump in response to rapid decreases in light intensity, such as those produced by the shadow of an object passing above it. In the laboratory, decreases in light intensity were produced using a fiber optic lamp and an electronic shutter to abruptly either nearly eliminate visible light or reduce light intensity to a constant proportion of its original intensity. The escape responses of A. tonsa to these rapid decreases in visible light were recorded on high-speed video using infrared illumination. The speed, acceleration, and direction of movement of the escape response were quantified from videotape by using automated motion analysis techniques. A. tonsa typically responds to decreases in light intensity with an escape jump comprising an initial reorientation followed by multiple power strokes of the swimming legs. These escape jumps can result in maximum speeds of over 800 mm s^-1 and maximum accelerations of over 200 m s^-2. In A. tonsa, photically stimulated escape responses differ from hydrodynamically stimulated responses mainly in the longer latencies of photically stimulated responses and in the increased number of power strokes, even when the stimulus is near threshold; these factors result in longer escape jumps covering greater distances. The latency of responses of A. tonsa to this photic stimulus ranged from a minimum of about 30 ms to a maximum of more than 150 ms, compared to about 4 ms for hydrodynamically stimulated escape jumps. Average response latency decreased with increasing light intensity or increasing proportion of light eliminated. Little change was observed in the vigor of the escape response to rapid decreases in visible light over a wide range of adaptation intensities.