Female choice in the resource-defense mating system of the sand fiddler crab, Uca pugilator

Abstract

Mating preferences of individual females and mating patterns among marked crabs were studied during the summers of 1973–1976 on sand beaches in mangrove habitat on the west coast of Florida in order to determine if females choose mates indirectly on the basis of the quality of a resource males defend and females use during breeding, directly on the basis of male size, or both.