Preference Versus Performance: Body Temperature of the Intertidal Snail Chlorostoma funebralis

摘要: Evolutionary theory predicts that, in variable environments, it is advantageous for ectothermic organisms to prefer a body temperature slightly below the physiolog- ical optimum. This works well many terrestrial but has not been tested animals inhabiting hypervariable physical environment of intertidal shores. In laboratory experiments, we allowed snail Chlorostoma funebralis position itself on gradient, then measured its thermal preference and deter- mined an index how performance varied with temper- ature. Snails performed biased random walk along which, contrary expectations, caused them aggregate where was 15 17 °C their optimum near species' lower limit. "cold-biased" behavioral response may guide snails refuges shaded cracks crevices, potentially precludes C. from taking full advantage physiological capabilities.