Spawning behaviour of amemasu charr, Salvelinus leucomaenis leucomaenis, with a discussion of the macroevolutionary patterns of postspawning behaviour in the Salmoninae

• Published in: Ecology of freshwater fish Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 364 - 370
• Main Authors: Esteve, Manu, McLennan, Deborah A., Kawahara, Mitsuru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2011
• Subjects: Freshwater; Oncorhynchus; Parahucho; phylogeny and behaviour; Salmo; Salmoninae; salmonines; Salvelinus; Salvelinus leucomaenis; spawning act; INW, Japan, Hokkaido
• ISSN: 0906-6691; 1600-0633
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0633.2010.00476.x

–  Video cameras inside underwater housings were used to record the spawning behaviour of a subspecies of the white‐spotted charr, the amemasu charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis leucomaenis) in the Tokimae and Onbetsu Rivers, Hokkaido, Japan. Unlike other Salvelinus species, in which females use lateral swings of their bodies to ventilate and distribute eggs over gravel crevices (undulating) immediately after spawning, female amemasu charr covered their eggs with beats of their tails (cover digging). Cover digging right after spawning has previously been documented in Salmo, Oncorhynchus and Parahucho. Phylogenetic analysis of postspawning behaviours in the Salmoninae indicated that (i) resting then covering the eggs is plesiomorphic for the group, (ii) undulating replaced resting in the ancestor of Salvelinus, (iii) cover digging was advanced in the behavioural sequence to occur immediately after egg deposition in the ancestor of Parahucho + Salmo + Oncorhynchus and in the amemasu.