Behavioural studies in ecotoxicology are increasing with techniques and endpoints used in pharmacology being translated to other vertebrate and invertebrate species. Despite this, data on the baseline behaviours of model organisms, and inter-species variability in behaviour are currently under-studied. This study assessed a range of behaviours associated with anxiety including swimming speed, phototaxis and thigmotaxis in a marine and freshwater amphipod (Echinogammarus marinus and Gammarus pulex). Differences in sensitivity to these assays were observed between species with E. marinus showing a greater sensitivity to the phototaxis assay than G. pulex, while in thigmotaxis assays G. pulex appeared better suited than E. marinus for measuring differences in the use of central zones. Significant inter-species differences were also observed in swimming patterns when breaking the data into ten second time bins but not when data was broken into two-minute time bins. The results of this study provide evidence of phototactic and thigmotactic behaviours in two model crustacean species with potential for use in behavioural ecotoxicology. Inter-species variability in sensitivity to behavioural assays highlights the importance of systematic assessment of baseline responses for all model species used in behavioural studies. Careful analysis of data is also required when performing behavioural studies so as not to lose sensitivity in your data.

随着毒理学中使用的技术和终点被转化为其他脊椎动物和无脊椎动物物种，生态毒理学方面的行为研究也在不断增加。尽管如此，目前仍在研究有关模型生物的基线行为以及物种间行为变异性的数据。本研究评估了一系列与焦虑包括游泳速度相关联的行为，趋光性和thigmotaxis在海洋和淡水足目（Echinogammarus马里努斯和钩虾状溞）。在海水大肠杆菌（E. marinus）的物种之间观察到的对这些测定的敏感性差异比对G. pulex表现出更大的光趋趋化敏感性，而在趋趋化试验中，G. pulex则表现出不同的敏感性。似乎比E. marinus更适合测量中部区域使用方面的差异。当将数据分为十个第二时间段时，在游泳模式中也观察到显着的种间差异，但是当数据分为两分钟的时间段时则没有。这项研究的结果提供了在两个模型甲壳动物物种中的光趋化和拟趋化行为的证据，它们有可能用于行为生态毒理学。物种间对行为分析敏感性的差异凸显了系统评估行为研究中使用的所有模型物种的基线反应的重要性。在进行行为研究时，还需要仔细分析数据，以免丢失数据的敏感性。