Data from: Lonnstedt OM, McCormick MI (2015) Damsel in distress: captured damselfish prey emit chemical cues that attract secondary predators and improve escape chances. Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 282:20152038

Excel datafile for Lonnstedt OM, McCormick MI (2015) Damsel in distress: captured damselfish prey emit chemical cues that attract secondary predators and improve escape chances. Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 282:20152038. Datafile contains 7 sheets. Data is for 2 experiments - a field experiment as detailed in the manuscript and a laboratory experiment.Abstract [Related Publication]: In aquatic environments, many prey animals possess damage-released chemical alarm cues that elicit antipredator behaviours in responsive conand heterospecifics. Despite considerable study, the selective advantage of alarm cues remains unclear. In an attempt to investigate one of the more promising hypotheses concerning the evolution of alarm cues, we examined whether the cue functions in a fashion analogous to the distress vocalizations emitted by many terrestrial animals. Our results suggest that chemical alarm cues in damselfish (Pomacentridae) may have evolved to benefit the cue sender by attracting secondary predators who disrupt the predation event, allowing the prey a greater chance to escape. The coral reef piscivore, the dusky dottyback (Pseudochromis fuscus), chemically eavesdrops on predation events and uses chemical alarm cues from fish prey (lemon damselfish; Pomacentrus moluccensis) in an attempt to find and steal prey from primary predators. Field studies showed that Ps. fuscus aggregate at sites where prey alarm cue has been experimentally released. Furthermore, secondary predators attempted to steal captured prey of primary predators in laboratory trials and enhanced prey escape chances by 35–40%. These results are the first, to the best of our knowledge, to demonstrate a mechanism by which marine fish may benefit from the production and release of alarm cues, and highlight the complex and important role that semiochemicals play in marine predator–prey interactions.The full methodology is available in the publication shown in the Related Publications link below.

本数据集为Lonnstedt OM与McCormick MI（2015）的研究配套Excel数据文件，对应论文《遇险的猎物：被捕雀鲷会释放化学信号以吸引次级捕食者并提升逃生几率》，发表于《英国皇家学会学报B辑》282卷，文章编号20152038。本数据集共包含7个工作表，涵盖两项实验的数据：即正文中详述的野外实验与室内实验室实验。

【相关研究摘要】在水生环境中，诸多猎物动物可释放**损伤释放型化学警戒信号（damage-released chemical alarm cues）**，能够触发同种个体与异种响应个体的反捕食行为。尽管已有大量相关研究，但这类警戒信号的选择优势仍未明晰。为验证关于警戒信号演化的一项极具潜力的假说，本研究考察了该类信号是否与多数陆生动物发出的遇险叫声功能相似。结果表明，雀鲷科（Pomacentridae）鱼类的化学警戒信号，其演化或可使信号释放者获益：通过吸引次级捕食者干扰当前捕食过程，从而提升猎物的逃生概率。珊瑚礁鱼食性鱼类暗色拟雀鲷（*Pseudochromis fuscus*）会通过化学信号侦听捕食事件，并利用被捕食鱼类（摩鹿加雀鲷*Pomacentrus moluccensis*）释放的化学警戒信号，定位并从初级捕食者口中窃取猎物。野外实验结果显示，暗色拟雀鲷会聚集在实验性释放猎物警戒信号的区域。此外，室内实验表明，次级捕食者会尝试抢夺初级捕食者捕获的猎物，使猎物逃生几率提升35%~40%。据我们所知，本研究首次证实了海洋鱼类可通过产生并释放警戒信号获得生存收益的机制，并凸显了半化学物质（semiochemicals）在海洋捕食者-猎物相互作用中所扮演的复杂且关键的角色。

完整的实验方法可通过下述相关文献链接查阅。