Spine deficiency and polymorphism in a population of Gasterosteus aculeatus: an adaptation to predators?

Abstract

A population of Gasterosteus aculeatus from a muskeg lake on the Queen Charlotte Islands shows a spine polymorphism, with 80% lacking the second dorsal spine and 68% lacking the pelvic spines. Females were more prevalent among phenotypes with greater spine number, and males were more common among those with fewer spines. Adult females, as well as juveniles of both sexes with pelvic spines, were more frequent in the limnetic habitat, whereas adult males and juveniles without pelvic spines were common in the littoral region.Five species of piscivorous birds, each in low numbers, foraged in the lake. Extensive predation in the limnetic region by Gavia immer and, secondarily, Podiceps spp. is implicated as a selective pressure favouring the greater spined phenotype.Odonate Nymphs (Aeshna spp.) consumed juvenile fish in predation experiments and in the lake proper. Nymphs were common in the littoral zone, where submerged debris provided substrate for foraging. It is proposed that spine loss in this population of G. aculeatus is an adaptation to the hunting technique of Aeshna, whereby reduced external structures such as spines minimize frictional contact for a grappling predator. Experimental data and other gasterosteid populations are discussed with reference to these proposals.