Parent Record: Social monogamy in the fiddler crab Uca capricornis

招潮蟹通常不被认为是一夫一妻制的研究对象，因为它们往往生活在密集的混合性别殖民地，有许多邻居和单独防御的领土。在这里，一系列的实验已经进行了展示的独特关系相邻的男性和女性之间的物种Uca capricornis。这些实验表明，这种招潮蟹是社会性的一夫一妻制。2002-2006年11月至1月，在达尔文东角保护区进行了6项与本研究相关的实验：<br /> <br /> 1)自然的男女互动和领土-二十一对从头顶拍摄了30分钟。任何活动都被记录下来，与入侵者的任何互动也被记录下来。还检查了领土性，提供了半小时内螃蟹覆盖的整体区域。通过将雄性和雌性的领地与它们各自的洞穴对齐，可以确定它们之间的区域重叠。<br /> <br /> 2)性别比例和分布-本实验的目的是确定女性是否可能是一个有限的资源在一个人口的Uca capricornis。确定了与大小有关的性别比例。洞穴的位置也被记录下来，以确定男性和女性是否彼此独立分布。还测量了每个人与最近居民的距离和性别，以比较男女邻居之间和男女邻居之间的平均距离。<br /> <br /> 3)洞穴保有权-为了确定雄雌配对是否比雄雄配对更持久，我们记录了24小时后仍然存在于同一洞穴中的螃蟹数量。<br /> <br /> 4)“邻居”和“陌生人”的关系-这个实验的目的是展示如何雄性招潮蟹回应不同的人拴在附近的洞穴。观察了雄蟹对邻居和陌生人（具有相似的物理特征）的反应。<br /> <br /> 5)成对蟹面对不同性别入侵者的反应。这项实验的目的是确定男性和女性是否无法与多个伴侣交往，因为他们的伴侣会积极地排斥同性入侵者。<br /> <br /> 6)大小选择性交配-该实验旨在检查最近的雌性或雄性邻居是否与焦点雄性的大小相关。这项研究是基于在其他实验中收集的数据。

Fiddler crabs are not generally considered subjects for the study of monogamy as they tend to live in dense mixed sex colonies with numerous neighbours and individually defended territories. Here, a series of experiments have been conducted demonstrating the unique relationship between neighbouring males and females in the species Uca capricornis. These experiments illustrate that this species of fiddler crab is socially monogamous. Six experiments were conducted in relation to this investigation in the East Point Reserve, Darwin from November to January in 2002-2006: <br /> <br /> 1) Natural male-female interactions and territoriality - Twenty-one pairs were filmed from overhead for a period of 30 minutes. Any activity was noted, as was any interactions with intruders. Territoriality was also examined, providing the overall area covered by the crabs within the half hour. By aligning the male and female territories with their respective burrows it was possible to determine the area overlap between them. <br /> <br /> 2) Sex ratio and distribution - The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether females may be a limited resource within a population of Uca capricornis. The sex ratio in relation to size was determined. The location of burrows was also recorded to determine whether the males and females were distributed independently of each other. The distance to, and sex of, the nearest resident for each individual was also measured to compare mean distances between male-female neighbours and between male-male neighbours.<br /> <br /> 3) Burrow tenure -To determine whether male-female pairs were longer lasting than male-male pairs, we documented the number of crabs that were still present in their same burrow after 24 hours. <br /> <br /> 4) 'Neighbour' and 'stranger' relations - This experiment was designed to demonstrate how a male fiddler crab responds to different individuals tethered near to his burrow. The response of a male crab to the neighbour and a stranger (with similar physical characteristics) was observed.<br /> <br /> 5) Response of paired crabs when faced with intruders of differing sex. This experiment was designed to determine if males and females are unable to associate with multiple partners because their partners aggressively repel same-sex intruders. <br /> <br /> 6) Size-assortative mating -This experiment was designed to examine whether the nearest female or male neighbour was correlated with the size of a focal male. This investigation was based upon data collected during the other experiments.