The effects of temperature on feeding kinematics through ontogeny in the invasive pike killifish, Belonesox belizanus.

The alarming, rapid spread of tropical invasive species toward higher latitudes has underscored the urgent need to understand their biology and ecology. What is missing in contemporary invasive-species research is information that advances our understanding of how the effects of environmental temperature on organismal performance is confounded by body size or ontogeny. It is hypothesized that a 10°C change in environmental temperature results in a twofold change in the rate of muscular contraction. It is also expected that performance metrics that are driven by rate processes reflect this relationship. We examined the effects of temperature on the feeding kinematics in the invasive pike killifish, Belonesox belizanus, from the neonate stage (17.9mm) to the adult stage (100.7mm) to address the question, “How does the temperature-performance relationship change through ontogeny?” Duration and timing of kinematic events scale with body size and ontogenetic stage in the pike killifish. This relationship remained consistent across all environmental-temperature conditions examined. Environmental temperature has little, insignificant effects on the prey-capture performance of pike killifish through ontogeny. It is hypothesized that the ability of pike killifish, Belonesox belizanus to spread its range of distribution in Florida is enhanced by the thermal independence of its prey-capture kinematics and behavior regardless of its life-history stage of ontogeny.