Even Weak Males Help Their Neighbours: Defence Coalitions in a Fiddler Crab

Abstract

Large male fiddler crabs sometimes help smaller neighbours to defend their territories against intruders. These coalitions occur when the helper is likely to defeat the intruder (helper larger than intruder) and the neighbour is likely to lose his territory without help (intruder larger than neighbour). Previous studies of coalitions have excluded males with regenerated claws. Such claws are weaker weapons that make the bearer competitively inferior. Here, we show that male Uca annulipes with regenerated claws are as likely as males with original claws to help their neighbours in territory defence, even though, as weaker males they potentially pay greater costs, being more likely to lose their undefended burrow. We suggest that males with regenerated claws gain greater benefits from retaining a current, small neighbour and that, as in non-coalition fights, the regenerated claw acts as a visual bluff in the early stages of combat. Furthermore, we show that intruders with regenerated or original claws are equally likely to be attacked by a ‘helping’ neighbour. This bolsters the argument that males cannot visually differentiate between original and regenerated claws.