The cerato-mandibular (c-md) ligament, joining the hyoid bar to the coronoid process of the angular, allows Pomacentridae to slam their mouth shut in a few milliseconds. Previous works have revealed that such a mechanism is used to feed, but some variability in biting patterns has been observed between two damselfish species. The pelagic feeder Amphiprion clarkii performs two different kinematic patterns to bite fixed prey, one that does not depend on the c-md ligament (biting-1) and one that does (biting-2). The benthic feeder Stegastes rectifraenum only performs biting-2. The present study aims to shed light on the occurrence of biting-2 in the feeding behaviour of Pomacentridae. To test our hypothesis that biting-2 would be the only biting pattern for benthic feeders, we compared biting behaviours among four species: one pelagic feeder, A. clarkii, and three benthic feeders, Neoglyphidodon nigroris, Stegastes leucostictus and S. rectifraenum. Our results showed that the four species were able to perform biting-2, but they do not support that the use of this pattern is related to trophic habits. Contrary to S. rectifraenum, the two other benthic feeders randomly used biting-1 and biting-2 patterns, similar to A. clarkii. Two hypotheses are discussed for explaining this variability within Pomacentridae. Finally, it has been recently shown that some damselfishes do not possess the c-md ligament. We therefore included two species lacking the c-md ligament (Chromis chromis and Abudefduf troschelii) in our study and we demonstrate our expectation that they are unable to perform biting-2.
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