Effects of predatory pressure on the fiddler crabs' activity rhythms Uca thayeri (Brachyura, Ocypodidae)

• Grant number: 13/06472-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: February 28, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Marcia Costa
• Grantee: Fernando Rafael de Grande
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Coastal organisms present rhythms of activities regulated under environmental pressures and / or biological weapons, so that the peaks of activity culminating in the highest survival rates. Predation, for example, can affect the density, distribution and social interactions of these organisms. This study aims to evaluate the effect of predation on the pace of activities of crabs of the genus Uca, during the submersion of the sediment (high tide). Will be used as a model organism thayeri Uca, and as predator fish Sphoeroides testudineus. The observations by the method Scan will be performed in controlled laboratory environment and the animals will be kept in microcosm the conditions that reproduce flood (high and low tide) and brightness (light and dark) observed in the natural environment. The present experiment three treatments: (1) will be introduced in a compartment of the microcosm, a copy of S. testudineus, so that the crabs viewing the fish but there is no chemical communication between them, (2) a copy of fish is introduced into the compartment so that there is communication chemistry, but not visual, between it and crabs; (3 )a copy of fish is introduced into the compartment so that there is communication chemistry and visual, between it and crabs; (4) not the fish will be introduced into the microcosm. Each treatment will present 3 replicates and the experiment will be repeated 3 times. The frequency values for the observed behaviors will be compared to each treatment and replication phase of tidal cycles and circadian submitting data to test Goodman.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE GRANDE, FERNANDO RAFAEL; CANNICCI, STEFANO; COSTA, TANIA MARCIA. Can fiddler crabs detect underwater predators? A laboratory test with Leptuca thayeri. ETHOLOGY ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, v. 31, n. 1, p. 86-97, JAN 2 2019. (13/06472-1, 16/08687-3, 10/09763-9)