A conspicuous courtship signal in the fiddler crab Uca perplexa : female choice based on display structure

Date

2006

Authors

Murai, Minoru
Backwell, Patricia

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer

Abstract

The fiddler crab Uca perplexa has a conspicuous male courtship signal that is directed at females to attract them to the male's burrow for mating. The signal involves waving the unflexed large claw up and down. To determine whether the spatiotemporal structure of the wave is under selection by female choice, we examined whether females had a preference for any particular features of the wave. Females respond to a waving display by either visiting the male's burrow entrance or by electing to pass without visiting the burrow. We filmed mate-searching females and the waving males that they visited or passed. We documented the wave structure of these males using frame-by-frame analysis. Males produce a two-part wave with component A preceding component B. Both components have an upstroke, a pause at the apex and a downstroke. The tip of the claw was raised much higher in B than in A. Visited males had a shorter delay between the two wave components than did males that the females passed without visiting. Visited males also produced component B waves that had a slower upstroke than those of passed males. There was a significant correlation between the relative height of the raised claw and the duration of the upstroke of component B. Females were selecting males that raised their major claw to the highest position (two to three times as high as the carapace width). Passed males brought down their major claw earlier and from a lower position than did visited males. The data suggests that wave structure has evolved through female choice. Male display rate and body size were not female choice cues. An earlier study showed that display duration was also not used by females in selecting mates.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: courtship; crab; female behavior; mating behavior; signaling; Decapoda (Crustacea); Ocypodidae; Uca Claw waving; Courtship signal; Female choice; Fiddler crab

Citation

Source

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

Restricted until

2037-12-31