Meeting Abstract
The Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) is known for its remarkable ability to detect and utilize the geomagnetic field for navigation. Recent studies found that a brief, strong magnetic pulse had a significant effect on lobster orientation. While it is clear that lobsters respond to Earth-strength magnetic fields and strong magnetic pulses, whether lobsters respond to a static, strong field is not known. As a first attempt to determine the effects of a static, strong magnetic field on lobster behavior, we tested lobsters in a simple two-choice preference experiment. Lobsters were released in the center of a rectangular, seawater-filled arena and allowed 15 minutes to choose one of two artificial dens on either end of the arena. Each den was equipped with a sealed PVC capsule containing either a strong neodymium magnet (magnet den) or a non-magnetic weight (control den). The positions of the magnet and weight were alternated between the two dens for each trial. We found that significantly more lobsters chose the control den, indicating that lobsters avoided the strong magnetic field associated with the magnet den. Interestingly, lobsters that took refuge in the magnet den were significantly smaller than those that inhabited the control den. These findings provide further support for magnetic field detection in spiny lobsters and suggest that strong magnetic fields might influence lobster behavior in the natural environment.
