introduced species are often thought to do well because of an escape from natural enemies. however, once established, they can acquire a modest assemblage of enemies, including parasites, in their new range. Here we quantified prevalence and effects of infection with copepods (family Myicolidae) and pea crabs (Pinnotheres novaezelandiae), in three mussel species, the non-native Musculista senho...

The California horn snail, Cerithideopsis californica, and the shore crabs, Pachygrapsus crassipes and Hemigrapsus oregonensis, compete for epibenthic microalgae, but the crabs also eat snails. Such intraguild predation is common in nature, despite models predicting instability. Using a series of manipulations and field surveys, we examined intraguild predation from several angles, including th...

Several species of crabs from hydrothermal vent sites in the Pacific Ocean were found to be infested by small, symbiotic nemertean worms. Worms occurred on both male and female crabs, and were located in mucous sheaths adhering to the axillae between the limbs of males and females, the setae of the pleopods of females, and the sterna of infested male and female crabs. Only juvenile and regresse...

This study presents a methodology for combining archival data storage tags (DSTs) and ultrasonic transmitters to investigate the microhabitat conditions of adult Cancer magister (Dana), inhabiting an estuary. The temperature, salinity and depth experienced by freeranging Dungeness crabs was recorded at 10min intervals for periods ranging from 1 week to 8months. Crabs were tracked using a hydrop...

e-mail: [email protected] Camouflage is perhaps the most widespread anti-predator defense in nature, with many different types thought to exist. Of these, resembling the general color and pattern of the background (background matching) is likely to be the most common. Background matching can be achieved by adaptation of individual appearance to different habitats or substrates, behavi...

AMPARU is a large tidal lagoon located on the west coast of Ishigaki Island, where a variety of small crabs range over. In these thirty years, however, accumulation of red clay from the watershed has been changing the topography and the hydraulic characteristics of the lagoon, and then changing the environments for the crabs to habitat there. This paper presents a result of a field survey that ...

Predation can significantly affect prey populations and communities, but predator effects can be attenuated when abiotic conditions interfere with foraging activities. In estuarine communities, turbidity can affect species richness and abundance and is changing in many areas because of coastal development. Many fish species are less efficient foragers in turbid waters, and previous research rev...

The true crabs, the Brachyura, are generally divided into two major groups: Eubrachyura or 'advanced' crabs, and Podotremata or 'primitive' crabs. The status of Podotremata is one of the most controversial issues in brachyuran systematics. The podotreme crabs, best recognised by the possession of gonopores on the coxae of the pereopods, have variously been regarded as mono-, para- or polyphylet...

and highly successful decapod group, their osmoregulatory capability has been studied mainly from the whole-animal perspective, and little information is available concerning their physiological mechanisms of osmotic and ionic regulation. Like the diadromous crabs that migrate between sea water and fresh water during their life cycle, the hololimnetic Brachyura also maintain large, outwardly di...

The predatory xanthid crabs Eurytjum limosurn and Panopeus herbstii are common components of benthic assemblages in different intertidal habitats within salt marshes around Sapelo Island. Georgia, USA. E. limosum feed primarily on other crabs and are found where cordgrass Spartina altemiflora stems are the dominant structural elements in the environment. P: herbstii feed largely on bivalve moll...