Electric Communication: Functions in the Social Behavior of Eigenmannia Virescens
نویسنده
چکیده
Electric communication has evolved in certain fishes for the purpose of identification, for forming or maintaining social relationships, and for synchronizing behavior. Relatively little is known regarding this communication channel. Among several distantly related groups of fishes, electric signals originate in specialized electric organs, are transmitted as electric currents in water, and are received by specialized cutaneous electroreceptors. Two of the principal groups of fishes that are thought to use electrical communication, the Gymnotoidei and the Mormyriformes, have members that produce two distinct classes of electric discharges which I refer to as "tone discharges" and "pulse discharges." All members of a given species appear to employ one type of discharge or the other. Tone discharges are those in which the individual impulses of the electric organ have a long duration in comparison to the interval between successive impulses, and in which the frequency of the discharge is very stable. Pulse discharges are those in which individual impulses are brief with respect to the interval between impulses, and in which the frequency is variable. The electric organ and
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