LATERAL ASYMMETRIES DURING ESCAPE BEHAVIOR IN A SPECIES OF TELEOST FISH (JENYNSIA-LINEATA)

Lateral asymmetries in the direction of turning during escape behavior in a species of teleost fish, Jenynsia lineata, are reported. When fa ced with the visual image of a simulated predator, approximately half of the individuals exhibited a significant bias to turn rightwards or leftwards, and the asymmetry tended to be retained when the same fish were retested 1 month later. Some morphological characters (pectoral f in rays, scales in natural row, supraorbital, preopercular, and postot ic pores) were measured to check whether the degree of behavioral asym metry was correlated with morphological fluctuating asymmetries associ ated with environmental stress or reduced heterozygosis. The results s howed that it was not. The implications of these results for the inter pretation of behavioral lateralization at the individual and populatio n level are discussed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.