Changes in the activity budget of the fiddler crab Leptuca uruguayensis throughout the reproductive period in temperate estuaries

• Published in: Zoology (Jena) Vol. 159; p. 126104
• Main Authors: Colpo, Karine Delevati, Reyes Jiménez, Laura M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Elsevier GmbH 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Capital and income breeding strategies; Feeding behaviour; Mate searching females; Ocypodidae; Seminal receptacles; Thermal stress; Thermal stress; Mate searching females; Ocypodidae; Seminal receptacles; Feeding behaviour; Capital and income breeding strategies
• ISSN: 0944-2006; 1873-2720
• DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2023.126104

Animal reproductive success implies the performance of several behaviours, such as courting, mate searching, copulation, offspring production and care. These behaviours usually have high energetic and ecological costs. Therefore, to maximise their reproductive success, animals should make choices throughout their lives, such as deciding how much energy to invest in different activities, according to their conditions and needs. In temperate estuaries, the fiddler crab L. uruguayensis has a short reproductive period, with two synchronous spawning events. Considering that reproductive behaviours incur high energetic cost to fiddler crabs, we estimated how this species manages its activity budget throughout the reproductive period, to quantify trade-offs between the time spent on reproductive behaviours versus time spent on other activities. By analysing videos of females and males recorded in the field at different moments of the reproductive period, we observed that pre-copulatory behaviours, such as female wandering and male waving were more intense at the beginning of the reproductive period, suggesting that most matings occurred before the first spawning event but not before the second one. The ecological conditions during the breeding season and the individual strategies adopted by males and females mostly determine when and how much time to spend on courtship behaviours, and behavioural plasticity can be expected whenever the conditions change. The strategy used by L. uruguayensis for energy management, females’ ability to store male gametes and environmental temperatures might have been the main factors determining the relative time spent in courtship behaviours during the reproductive period. •In temperate estuaries, Leptuca uruguayensis spawns twice in the reproductive period.•Reproductive behaviours were more intense at the beginning of the reproductive period.•Females searched for mates more intensely before the first spawning event.•Males waved the major cheliped more intensely before the first spawning event.•Pre-copulatory behaviours did not predict the spawning pattern of L. uruguayensis.