Abstract
Animals living on upper intertidal mudflats experience habitat desiccation during neap tides when water does not flood the habitat. Individuals of the manicure crab Cleistostoma dilatatum construct cone-shaped towers at the entrance of their burrows, in which they remain during neap tides. These towers are the tallest known structures compared to body size built by crabs living on intertidal flats. The frequency of tower construction followed semilunar tidal cycles with most building done prior to neap tides when few crabs were active on the mudflat surface. Bigger crabs tended to make taller and wider towers with a wider pinhole on the top. These towers may regulate the microclimate in burrows.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 459-465 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Ethology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgments We are grateful to Zhen Zhu for her assistance in the field. We also thank Ashley Greenley and John Christy for helpful comments on the manuscript. Thanks also go to Keiji Wada for introduction to tower-building behavior of C. dilatatum. This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2008-314-C00384).
Keywords
- Climate
- Manicure crab
- Tidal cycle
- Tower
- Ventilation