Marine Animal Behaviour In Relation To Lunar Phase

For marine invertebrate animals, in particular, examples are given of rhythmic patterns of locomotor, reproductive and moulting behaviour which are of lunar and semilunar periodicities. Some of these 29.5 and 14.8 day rhythms are shown to persist in constant conditions in the laboratory, indicative of internal biological clock control induced by intense adaptive selection pressure. In some cases phasing of the rhythms is directly by moonlight but, in other cases phasing is indirect, associated with lunar monthly variationsin the amplitude of ocean tides, that is the neap/spring cycle.