Males are attracted by their own courtship signals |
| |
Authors: | Pablo D Ribeiro John H Christy Rebecca J Rissanen Tae Won Kim |
| |
Institution: | (1) Departamento de Biología, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, CC 573 Correo Central, B7600WAG Mar del Plata, Argentina;(2) Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina;(3) Naos Laboratory, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Panamá;(4) Laboratory of Behavior and Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, 151-742 Seoul, South Korea |
| |
Abstract: | Courting male fiddler crabs Uca terpsichores (1 cm carapace width) sometimes build mounds of sand called hoods at the entrances to their burrows. Males wave their single
enlarged claws to attract females to their burrows for mating. It was shown previously that burrows with hoods are more attractive
to females and that females visually orient to these structures. In this study, we test whether males also use their hoods
to find their burrows. We first determined the maximum distance that males can see and find a burrow opening without a hood.
Males were removed from their burrows and placed on the sand at a range of distances from a burrow opening. If they were more
than about 8 cm (seven units of eye-height) away, they were unable find the burrow. In contrast, males that were burrow residents
used a non-visual path map to return to their burrows from much greater distances. To determine if hoods help males find their
burrows when there are errors in their path maps, we moved residents 1–49 cm on sliding platforms producing errors equal to
the distances they were moved. Males with self-made hoods or hood models at their burrows relocated their burrows at significantly
greater distances than did males with unadorned burrows. Hood builders also relocated their burrows faster. Hence, hoods have
two functions: they attract females and they provide a visual cue that males use to find their burrows quickly and reliably
when their path maps fail.
An erratum to this article can be found at |
| |
Keywords: | Sensory trap Landmark orientation Sexual selection Hood building Uca |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|