Feeding morphology, diet, and ecomorphological relationships among five Caribbean labrids (Teleostei, Labridae)

The ecomorphological relationship between oral and pharyngeal jaw morpholog y and diet was investigated for five labrids: Lachnolaimus maximus, Halicho eres garnoti, H. bivittatus, H, maculipinna, and Thalassoma bifasciatum. Th e goals were to examine the following: (I) the relationship between diet an d oral and pharyngeal jaw morphology; and (2) the influence of feeding beha vior on diet. Twelve morphological measurements reflecting aspects of feedi ng ability were made. Interspecific differences in dentition were described . Principal components analysis (PCA) explained 96% of the variance among m orphological variables with the first two PCs. Principal component I accoun ted for 92.2% of the variance, separating species by body size, whereas PC2 (3.8% of variance) separated species by oral jaw shape and degree of protr usibility, Twenty-six prey categories were identified. Canonical correspond ence analysis (CCA) revealed that only 4.7% of the variation in diet was at tributable to morphological variables, indicating a low correlation between oral and pharyngeal jaw characters and diet. However, variables that measu red some aspect of performance were good predictors of diet. The proportion of hard prey consumed was correlated to the estimates of biting force for each species, Species with stronger pharyngeal jaw musculature consumed lar ger amounts of hard prey than those with lesser force generating ability. F eeding behaviors, classified as suction feeding, winnowing, or biting, corr esponded to oral jaw morphology, Species with less protrusible jaws were fo und to bite their prey, and species with more protrusible jaws picked items out of the water column or winnowed on the substrate.