Taking a risk: how far will male fiddler crabs go?

Abstract

Courtship is costly for males when it increases their energy expenditure and predation risk. There are several ways in which males might be able to mitigate these costs, or compensate for them by elevating the benefits of courtship. First, they could selectively court more profitable females. Second, they could adjust the amount of risk they take against their residual reproductive value. Third, they could sometimes use cheaper signals to deceive females. In the fiddler crab Leptuca terpsichores (Crane, 1941), males risk losing their burrow to another crab and falling prey to a bird when they leave their burrow to intercept a mate-searching female and lead her back to the burrow for mating. Some males build sand hoods at their burrow entrances, which are landmarks that attract females and allow males to relocate their burrows quickly with little error. Here, we show that (1) males took greater risks when courting larger females by travelling farther away from their burrows; (2) the distance a male moved from his burrow did not depend on his size (hence, age); and (3) males with sand hoods did not travel farther away from their burrows than males without hoods, and they were not more likely to reach females. Taking greater risks when courting larger (more fecund) females appears to be a key means through which male fiddler crabs can achieve a more favourable balance between the costs and benefits of courtship. Show more