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Acoustic repertoire of bighead goby Ponticola kessleri (Günther 1861) (Gobiidae), and implications on sound production within Ponto-Caspian species

Among the sound producing fishes, gobies are amongst the most studied families. Acoustic communication has been recorded for 22 species to date, primarily belonging to the genera Gobius, Padogobis, Zosterisessor, Knipowitschia and Pomatoschistus. Within the Ponto-Caspian lineage, few species have been acoustically tested. We recorded agonistic sounds of the Ponto-Caspian bighead goby (Ponticola kessleri) in the laboratory and analyzed the spectral and temporal characteristics of acoustic signals emitted by males. Overall, 191 sounds were recorded from five males. P. kessleri produced amplitude-modulated tonal sounds, which on the oscillogram correspond to a sinusoidallike waveform. Vocalizations were composed of 17-72 pulses (44.6 +/- 9.8) and lasted from 189.1 to 879.8 ms (473.7 +/- 121.4 ms). Most of the energy ranged from 100 to 400 Hz, with a maximum amplitude at the peak frequency, which ranged from 80 to 210 Hz (105 +/- 15.4 Hz). Peak frequency was the fundamental frequency. In some cases, additional spectral harmonic components were also present on the spectrogram (< 400 Hz). Moreover, pulse repetition rate corresponded to peak frequency and ranged from 68 to 128 Hz (95.8 +/- 12.2 Hz), suggesting that these sounds are tonal. Frequency modulation ranged from -23.4 to 38.3 Hz (-6.6 +/- 12.7 Hz), indicating slight downward modulation. On the spectrogram, P. kessleri sounds corresponded to vocalizations produced by the soniferous Atlantic-Mediterranean species, i.e. rock goby (Gobius paganellus). Both species produce frequency-modulated sounds (G. paganellus emits upward-modulated sounds) with a high pulse repetition rate (> 40 Hz), which appears phylogenetically to be the most important property in species discrimination. This acoustic affinity parallels molecular and morphological affinity revealed by recent studies. Tonal sounds of P. kessleri indicate that acoustic communication may contribute to resolving phylogenetic relationships and systematic position of Ponto-Caspian gobies, since P. kessleri acoustically clusters with other European gobies.

Ponticola kessleri ; tonal sounds ; acoustic communication ; phylogeny

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