Back to Search Start Over

Burying Behavior in Relation to Substrate and Temperature in the Hermit Crab, Pagurus Longicarpus

Authors :
Steve Rebach
Source :
Ecology. 55:195-198
Publication Year :
1974
Publisher :
Wiley, 1974.

Abstract

Pagurus longicarpus (Say) migrates in autumn from a shallow estuary to deeper waters of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, when ambient water temperatures are between 10? and 4? C. Critical thermal minimum experiments indicated that crabs ceased locomotor activity at approximately 30 C and righting response at 1.5? C. When presented with different sub- strates, crabs used their walking legs and, occasionally, their chelae to scoop a depression in the substrate. They were not able to construct a proper depression in gravel and, although they succeeded in burying themselves in both mud and sand, they remained buried only in sand. Winter dredging seaward of an estuary in which hermit crabs were found in summer showed the greatest density of crabs at 16-18 m depth, buried in fine sand. No crabs were found several meters away at 20 m on a silty mud bottom. The water temperature was less than 20 C in all areas sampled. It is hypothesized that, as environmental temperatures decrease, hermit crabs move into deeper water and bury themselves in regions of sandy bottom. Overwintering in this manner might decrease the predation of hermit crabs by benthic organisms while the crabs are in a state of torpor.

Details

ISSN :
00129658
Volume :
55
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Ecology
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........8ea38d1f0d90ac4520ecb7b53f97a6d3
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.2307/1934636