Role of the olfactory pathway in agonistic behavior of crayfish, Procambarus clarkii

Crayfish establish social dominance hierarchies through agonistic interactions, and these hierarchies are maintained through assessment of social status. Chemical signals influence several aspects of fighting behavior, but the specific chemosensory sensilla involved in detecting these signals in crayfish are unknown. The goal of our study was to examine the importance of aesthetasc sensilla--olfactory sensors on the antennules of decapod crustaceans--in regulating changes in fighting behavior in crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, over the course of repeated pairings. We selectively ablated aesthetascs from pairs of crayfish after the first day of trials and compared the behavior of these ablated animals to that of pairs of intact controls. Results show that unablated crayfish significantly decreased the number and duration of fights over repeated pairings, whereas crayfish lacking aesthetascs continued to engage in similar amounts of fighting across all three trial days. This difference shows that aesthetascs regulate fighting behavior in P. clarkii.