FOREWORD
Clownfishes are brightly colored fishes that became literally famous to the large public in 2003 following the release of “Finding Nemo”, an American computer-‐animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Yet, it was in the mid-‐20th century with the advent of SCUBA diving that clownfishes began to be known worldwide. Numerous investigations conducted by naturalists and marine scientists have contributed to underwater discoveries, among them the fascinating natural history of clownfishes.
These fishes are especially well known for their outstanding symbiosis with tropical sea anemones, which was first reported in 1868. This relationship has received a great deal of attention, with numerous investigations focusing on the nature of the symbiosis and the immunity mechanisms which enable the fishes to live unharmed among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones.
Admittedly, the intimate relationship between clownfishes and their invertebrate hosts is the more glamorous aspect of their general biology, but the considerable emphasis which has been placed on this topic has tended to obscure other equally interesting areas of research.
To a lesser extent, some attention has also been turned to other aspects of the life history of clownfishes. Among these, some studies highlighted the fact that sound production might play an important role in their behavior.
Although clownfishes were reported to produce sounds as early as 1930, the sound-‐producing mechanism has remained obscure, only resting on hypotheses without experimental verification. Additionally, others studies documented that clownfishes are able to produce different types of sounds during different behavioral context. Unfortunately, the lack of detailed comparisons between acoustic parameters measured and the precision of data presented (small sample sizes) emphasize the need for further investigations in order to understand the aim and scope of sound production in clownfishes.
