Abstract
Differences on reproductive performance between two sampling points of the porcelain crab Pachycheles monilifer from Ubatuba (São Paulo, Brazil), one from Itaguá Beach (living on Schizoporella errata) and the other from Grande Beach (living on Phragmatopoma caudata) has been previously observed. Therefore could be expected a specific behavior in substrate preference to optimize the best biogenic habitat. Considering this premise, our goal was to test the substrate preference of this species when both substrates were simultaneously available. In total, 185 individuals were collected in these same localities and they were submitted to substrate selection experiments. The trials were conducted on containers with quiet seawater at 28 ± 1°C and under dark photoperiod. Specimens were exposed to substrates by 30 min. Trials started with the release of one animal per treatment in the middle of the opposite side to the substrate inside the containers. After the established time, the substrate preference of each porcelain crab was verified. As result, no preference pattern was found and the choices in the experiment were not significantly different from the expected. This lack of preferences may be an indication that porcelain crabs are generalists in habitat use regardless of sex of individuals and potential benefit in fitness. Therefore, the differences on the reproductive aspects of the P. monilifer probably are associated with environment factors not simulated in this study and may indicate the occurrence of plasticity in habitat selection behavior.
Highlights
Decapod crustaceans that live in microhabitats with well-defined boundaries in the structure of sessile marine macro-invertebrates represent an appropriate model for investigations on preference habitat (Baeza and Stotz, 2003)
In the experimental arena with only one type of substrate, S. errata or P. caudata, the choice of left or right exhibited by individuals of P. monilifer was not significantly different from the expected (50% for each side; p > 0.05)
Our findings proposed that adults of P. monilifer do not have a preferential selection between the substrates: the polychaete P. caudata and the bryozoan S. errata
Summary
Decapod crustaceans that live in microhabitats with well-defined boundaries in the structure of sessile marine macro-invertebrates represent an appropriate model for investigations on preference habitat (Baeza and Stotz, 2003).Usually, these microhabitats are relatively easy to manipulate, making it possible to test habitat preferences by means of laboratorial experiments (Baeza and Stotz, 2003). Decapod crustaceans that live in microhabitats with well-defined boundaries in the structure of sessile marine macro-invertebrates represent an appropriate model for investigations on preference habitat (Baeza and Stotz, 2003). Understanding the preference for one habitat over another is one of the most important factors to explain the distribution and abundance of decapods in the field In this way, the knowledge about variations in the abundance and distribution of these crustaceans are useful to recognize the process structuring in marine benthic populations and communities (Hedvall et al, 1998; Baeza and Stotz, 2003)
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