Ritualization in Marine Crustacea

Quantitative analysis of size‐dependent variation in the fiddler crab wave display(Uca pugilator,brachyura, ocypodidae)

“…It is possible that U. pugilator has a more highly ritualized wave. This is corroborated by the fact that another Celuca, U. speciosa, is shown by Hazlett (1972b) to have a CV of 2% for wave †From the context (p. 230) of Barlow's (1968) paper, the term "mode" is meant as the customary manner or way of acting or performance. It is not the "mode" of parametric statistics, i.e.…”

How rugged individualists enable one another to find food and shelter: field experiments with tropical hermit crabs

“…In this regard, it is telling that crabs have not evolved a more prominent form of attraction, transforming cues into signals like the eusocial insects, since this evolutionary transition is thought to necessitate a benefit to the signalling party (Bradbury & Vehrencamp 1998). Notably, hermit crabs do possess rich repertoires of other signals, especially formalized agonistic behaviours, so they appear to have no shortage of 'raw material' that could be ritualized into recruitment signals (Hazlett 1972). However, without a gain for recruiting others, attractive signals are not to be expected, and the signals hermit crabs do have function not to attract conspecifics from far away but rather to ward off conspecifics that have already arrived at a resource (Laidre 2007).…”

Foraging and agonistic activity co-occur in free-ranging blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus): observation of animals by ultrasonic telemetry

“…In some crustaceans, the meral spread display may be part of a ritualized behavioral repertoire that seldom leads to physical contact between opponents. Ritualized behavior is marked by decreased variability of movement and a predictable sequence of movements (Hazlett, 1972). Threat displays meeting criteria for ritualization have been demonstrated in hermit crabs and stomatopods (Dingle, 1972;Hazlett, 1972).…”

“…Ritualized behavior is marked by decreased variability of movement and a predictable sequence of movements (Hazlett, 1972). Threat displays meeting criteria for ritualization have been demonstrated in hermit crabs and stomatopods (Dingle, 1972;Hazlett, 1972). In blue crabs, the degree to which threat behavior is ritualized has not yet been quantified; however, it is apparent that outright combat is frequent when crab density is high (Smith, 1990;Mansour and Lipcius, 1991;Smith and Hines, 1991).…”