Recognition of mates from others is crucial for monogamous species to maintain their long-term pair bonds. The seahorse is widely recognized as a monogamous species, and its mate recognition cue is still not well understood. In the present study, we used the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) as an experimental animal and investigated the effect of blocking olfactory, visual or behavioral (i.e., greeting) cues on mate recognition. Our results show that as long as the female seahorse can smell her mate, she will remain faithful to her mate and persistently select her mate as her next mating partner, regardless of whether the visual and/or behavioral cues between her and her mate are blocked. This finding implies that olfaction is a critical cue for a female seahorse to recognize her mate.

识别他人的配偶对于一夫一妻制物种维持其长期配对至关重要。海马被广泛认为是一夫一妻制的物种，其配偶识别线索仍未得到很好的理解。在本研究中，我们将内衬海马（Hippocampus erectus）用作实验动物，并研究了阻止嗅觉，视觉或行为（即问候）线索对伴侣识别的影响。我们的结果表明，只要雌海马能闻到伴侣的气味，她就将忠于自己的伴侣，并持续选择自己的伴侣作为下一个交配伴侣，无论她和伴侣之间的视觉和/或行为提示是否受到阻碍。这一发现暗示嗅觉是女性海马识别其伴侣的关键线索。