An empirical study for clarifying roles of sexual selections in evolution of male traits of fiddler crabs using robots.

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Field observations and experiments were conducted for fiddler crabs (genus Uca) with some comparisons in morphology of their chelae in order to clarify the effects of intra- and inter-sexual selections on evolutions of sexual ornaments and of the laterality. Although the experiments using robots that mimic courtship behaviors of crabs have been incomplete, we found that fights between hetero-claw males tend to last longer than those between homo-claw males in Uca lactea that exhibits developed social behaviors. The disagreement of this result for U. lactea with that for U. vomerisas well as difference in morphology of chelae between the species indicates that the mechanism for maintaining the laterality would differ between Uca species.