Social recognition in amphipods: An overview

Abstract

Many amphipod species occur in dense aggregations, cohabit with mating partners for long time periods, or live in family groups. Although this confers ample opportunities for social interactions among conspecifics, little is known about social recognition patterns in these species. Current research indicates that social recognition in amphipods is largely limited to mate and female-offspring recognition. In many amphipod species, the males are capable of assessing the reproductive status/quality of females and choose mates accordingly. While females of some species are capable of recognizing their own brood, in other species females seem to be indiscriminate towards their own or unrelated embryos. Some observations, however, suggest kin recognition within family units and even ranking of conspecifics seems to be likely. Central-place foraging has not been reported for amphipod families thus far, and also their potential for fortress defense is very limited. It thus appears that higher level social recognition may not have evolved in amphipods, although we recognize a lack of research in this area. Given their easy maintenance in laboratory cultures and technological advances in video recording and analysis, we believe that selected amphipod species could be ideal model organisms to study the evolution of social behavior.