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Journal of Experimental Biology 96,181-193 (1982)
Published by Company of Biologists 1982

Transient Rhythms in the Swimming Activity of Sarsia Tubulosa (Hydrozoa)

JANET L. LEONARD ¹

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706; Friday Harbor Laboratories, Friday Harbor, Washington 98250, U.S.A.; Division of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada

Maximum entropy spectral analysis (MESA) was used to assess the contribution of endogenous rhythms to the timing of swim bouts in a hydrozoan jellyfish, Sarsia tubulosa M. Sars. The results show that the high degree of variability in Sarsia swimming activity is due largely to the number of rhythms which may contribute to the behaviour and to the transient nature of these rhythms. I conclude that the ability to ‘choose’ among behavioural rhythms may be a widespread behavioural mechanism in cnidarians and I suggest that, in Sarsia, these transient behavioural rhythms may originate in activity of the marginal pacemaker system.