Use of energy reserves in fighting hermit crabs

Hermit crabs

Researchers had been divided over whether the sound was vocal or not, but the latest study, published online in the Royal Society Proceedings B shows unequivocally that the tail feathers were the source of the sound. When the researchers cut back the tail feathers — which grow back in five weeks and do not affect the birds ability to fly — the males were unable to make the noise. Tests in wind ...

Boldness and asymmetric contests: Role and outcome dependent effects of fighting in hermit crabs

On hermit crabs and humans.

Flynn, Laland, Kendal and Kendal’s article (this issue) plays a valuable role in two ways. First, it demonstrates how developmental psychology can learn lessons from the latest research on developmental niche construction within evolutionary biology. Secondly, for those psychologists whose main focus is the cognitive mechanisms by which humans develop their particular suite of abilities, it is ...

Shell Exchange in Hawaiian Hermit Crabs

Shell exchange behavior of intertidal Hawaiian hermit crabs was observed in the laboratory. Outcomes of 255 shell-related interactions were analyzed to test the predictive powers of two models of resource exchange . In the case of intraspecific interactions, the negotiations model (which predicts that exchanges should occur only when both crabs will gain in shell value) was superior to an aggre...

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES Use of Terrestrial Hermit Crabs in the Study of Habituation

For small colleges, the use of invertebrates in undergraduate learning laboratory experiments may be a valuable alternative to the use of vertebrate species. This article describes a habituation experiment using terrestrial hermit crabs. All of the materials required are inexpensive and readily available. What makes this experiment unique is that although the instructor sets basic parameters, s...