Hunting and predation in a fiddler crab

Abstract

Fiddler crabs are known primarily to be deposit feeders. They eat detritus, bacteria, and other small particles of organic material found in the sandy or muddy substrate on which they live. They have highly specialized mouthparts used to separate edible matter from nondigestable material. Here we provide evidence of cannibalism and predation in a fiddler crab, Uca annulipes. We additionally provide the first evidence of a fiddler crab hunting shrimp and insects. This study is an exemplary reminder that, even though an animal may have evolved highly specialized feeding traits, this need not preclude it from opportunistically acting as a generalist feeder.