Territorial battles between fiddler crab species. 2017

H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
Research School of Biology , The Australian National University , Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200 , Australia.

Many species worldwide are impacted by habitat loss. This may result in increased competition both within species and between species. Many studies have demonstrated that when two previously non-overlapping species are forced to compete over a resource, one species is likely to become dominant over the other. This study explores the impact a larger species of fiddler crab (Tabuca elegans-previously known as Uca elegans) has when invading an area previously used solely by a smaller species (Austruca mjoebergi-previously known as Uca mjoebergi). Here we show that, while there are some detrimental effects of living next to a heterospecific, they are relatively minor. New heterospecific neighbours fight more regularly with resident crabs, but each fight is no longer or more escalated than those between the resident and a new conspecific male. The residents are not specifically targeted by intruding heterospecifics, thus, given the large advantage of having a heterospecific neighbour in terms of lowered competition for females, the overall impact of species mixing is probably not as negative as might have been predicted.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
May 2010, The American naturalist,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
October 1962, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
April 2000, Proceedings. Biological sciences,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
January 1972, Environmental letters,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
February 1994, Journal of bacteriology,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
December 2008, Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
January 2016, PloS one,
H L Clark, and P R Y Backwell
December 2019, Ecology and evolution,
Copied contents to your clipboard!