SEXUAL SATELLITES, MOONLIGHT AND THE NUPTIAL DANCES OF

WORMS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOON ON THE REPRODUCTION

OF MARINE ANIMALS

M. G. BENTLEY, P. J. W. OLIVE and K. LAST

Department of Marine Sciences and Coastal Management, University of Newcastle, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK (E-mail: m.g.bentley@ncl.ac.uk p.j.w.olive@ncl.ac.uk)

Abstract. The evidence that the moon has a profound effect on the timing of reproductive activities
of marine animals is compelling. Some moon phase related spawning events are revealed by the
constant phase relationship between the timing of “once per year” spawning events and the lunar
phase as in the highly synchronised breeding of the palolo worm Palola viridis, and the Japanese
crinoid Comanthus japonicus. In other cases there is a repeated lunar cycle of reproductive activity
and again the marine worms provide many good examples. The breeding of the palolo worm involves
the highly synchronised release of what are in effect detached sexual satellites and the timing of
this has annual (solar year), lunar, daily and tidal rhythm components. In a similar way, the onset
of sexual maturation and participation in the nuptial dance of Platynereis dumerilli has strong lunar
components. Sexual reproduction is the culmination of a process of sexual maturation that takes many
months for completion and the mechanisms by which moon phase relationships are imposed on this
process must have been selected for by mechanisms relating to reproductive success. The polychaetes
provide excellent models for investigation of both the selective advantage and the physiological
processes involved in reproductive synchrony. We have recently shown that the spawning of the
lugworm Arenicola marina has lunar components and we conclude that an interaction between solar
and lunar signals is widespread in the timing of reproduction in marine animals. Carl Hauenschild
was the first to demonstrate the existence of a free-running circa-lunar rhythm in marine animals
using captive populations of Platynereis dumerilli. His experiments also provided clear evidence for
the influence of moonlight (light at night) as the zeitgeber for this rhythm. This implies a high level
of sensitivity to light, and the operation of appropriate endogenous biological rhythms. Using Nereis
virens we have demonstrated a high level of sensitivity to low intensity solar light signals in relation
to rhythmic processes with the properties similar to the circadian and photoperiodic mechanisms of
terrestrial organisms. The spawning of N. virens is also believed to have lunar components reflecting
the complex influences of the sun and the moon in the marine domain, where influences of the moon
and sun are more equal. We suggest that evolution of biological rhythmicity that can be entrained
to either lunar or solar systems arose in the marine domain. Recent advances in understanding the
molecular components of the circadian clock system suggest that a search for a common molecular
mechanism for both lunar and solar related biological rhythms in marine organisms might be very
fruitful.

Earth, Moon and Planets 85–86: 67–84, 2001. CD

© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. ROM