A low-cost sexual ornament reliably signals male condition in the fiddler crab Uca beebei
A low-cost sexual ornament reliably signals male condition in the fiddler crab Uca beebei
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一种低成本的性装饰品能够可靠地表明招潮蟹 Uca beebei 的雄性状况
DOI：
10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.03.024
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
M.)
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Matsumasa;M.;Murai;M.;Christy; J. H. (Matsumasa;M.)
需要对性信号的可靠性进行实证研究来检验女性应该更喜欢状况良好的男性的预测。我们通过在现场测量雄性招潮蟹 Uca beebei 所使用的有吸引力的性信号是否可靠地表明雄性状况。该信号是泥结构，即“柱子”，吸引雌性进行交配。立柱建造者（P 男性）在建造立柱后立即的血乳酸水平（衡量能量消耗的指标）与非建造者（NP 男性）没有差异，这表明建造立柱的成本很小。然而，P 雄性在活动周期后期的乳酸水平显着高于 NP 雄性，因为 P 雄性在使用爪子“挥舞”的激烈求爱中投入了更多精力。 P 雄性在其日常活动期间将葡萄糖水平（衡量能量可用性的指标，作为 ATP 生产的主要燃料）维持在 30 毫克/分升左右，而 NP 雄性在该时期的中期表现出明显较低的水平。这些结果证实，柱子可靠地表明了雄性的状况，这是通过其维持昂贵的求偶所需的血糖水平的能力来衡量的，尽管柱子的建造的能量成本最低。
Empirical studies of the reliability of sexual signals are needed to test the prediction that females should prefer males in good condition. We examined whether an attractive sexual signal used by male fiddler crabs, Uca beebei, reliably indicates male condition by measuring male blood glucose and lactate levels in the field. The signal is a mud structure, a ‘pillar’, that attracts females for mating. Blood lactate levels (a measure of energy expenditure) of pillar builders (P males) immediately after they built their pillars did not differ from those of nonbuilders (NP males), suggesting that the cost of building a pillar is small. However, P male lactate levels were significantly higher than those of NP males late in the activity cycle after P males had invested more in vigorous courtship using claw ‘waving’. Whereas P males maintained their glucose levels (a measure of energy availability as the major fuel for ATP production) at around 30mg/dl throughout their daily activity period, NP males showed significantly lower levels in the middle of the period. These results confirm that pillars reliably signal a male’s condition, as measured by his ability to maintain a blood glucose level necessary for costly courtship, even though the construction of a pillar has minimal energetic cost.