Ecomorphology of main food processing structures of four ocypodid species: how do they relate to the crabs' trophic habits?

The spoon-tipped (ST) setae coverage and their abundance on the second maxillipeds as well as the morphology of the urocardiac and zygocardiac ossicles from the gastric mills of the four ocypodid species, viz., Austruca annulipes (H. Milne Edwards, 1837), Gelasimus vocans (Linnaeus), 1758, two typical deposit-feeding fiddler crabs, Petruca panamensis (Stimpson, 1859), an atypical herbivorous-cum-'sediment swallower' fiddler crab, and Ocypode ceratophthalmus (Pallas, 1772), an omnivorous ghost crab, were described and compared in relation to their respective trophic habits.

Larder Hoarding Versus Immediate Food Consumption in Two Fiddler Crab Species: Is it an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy?

Larder hoarding behavior in central place foragers has been widely studied in vertebrates, albeit, not as extensively as scatter hoarding. However, scant information is available for the invertebrate taxa, especially aquatic species. We investigated this phenomenon via an food supplementation experiment in a community of two sympatric fiddler crabs, ( = 80; 40 males and 40 females) and ( = 60; 30 males and 30 females), in a Singapore mangrove patch with an intermediate resource level.

Unique Behavioral Strategies Adopted by Gravid Ghost Crab to Overcome Dehydration Stress while Minimizing Predation Risks.

Semi-terrestrial crabs require continual access to water to maintain life-sustaining processes such as circulation and feeding. When they emerge from their burrows during low tide to forage, they face the problem of dehydration as they leave the dampness of their burrows. While foraging above ground, water uptake is elicited through capillary action via the hydrophilic setae near the base of the crab's body.

Coexistence of Juvenile with Adult at Culebra Beach, Panama: A Temporal-spatial Partitioning Compromise.

The temporal-spatial resource use patterns of juvenile and adult were studied by comparing the zonation patterns and activity budgets of the two life stages at Culebra Beach, Panama. Burrow distribution of the crabs during the day and at night was studied over six months. Diurnal activity budgets of 46 crabs (22 juveniles and 24 adults) were determined by observing seven predominant behaviors upon emergence from their respective burrows when the burrow zone is uncovered after the tide recedes.

Ecomorphological Adaptations of Second Maxilliped-setation: Insights from Three Species of Fiddler Crabs from Panama.

The functional morphology of maxilliped-setation in three species of fiddler crabs-, and -collected from Panama were studied using a comparative ecomorphological approach. The coverage of spoon-tipped (ST) and plumose (P) setae on the inner surface of the second maxilliped were noted, and the abundance of each setal type was enumerated, with crab carapace width as the covariate. These attributes were then related to the sediment particle size characterization of their respective collection sites for an ecomorphological comparison.

Plasticity of Foraging Strategies Adopted by the Painted Ghost Crab, , in Response to Food Resource Manipulation Experiments.

The feeding strategies of at two sandy beaches, Culebra Beach (CB) and Playa Venao (PV) in Panama, were studied via three experiments. Two separate manipulative experiments were conducted to determine how the densities of food resources and the size of the supplemented food offered to the crabs can affect their diet and food handling behavior. The third experiment, a transplantation study, was also conducted to determine the plasticity of the feeding behavior of the displaced crabs.

To hide or to feed: an evaluation of personality traits in the sand bubbler crab, Dotilla wichmanni, when responding to environmental interference.

Behaviour plays a crucial role in a species' ability to cope with environmental challenges. However, this ability may be affected by repeatable individual differences in behaviour, a pattern described as animal personality. The consideration of animal personality is therefore essential when understanding how a species copes with its environmental stressors.