Abstract

We investigated how male Uca rosea (Tweedie, 1937) have behaviourally or morphologically compensated for having only one functional feeding claw while females have two. We found that male U. rosea used four compensatory mechanisms: (1) larger feeding claws (dactyl length and width), (2) higher feeding rate/claw per min, (3) higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw per min than similar sized females, and (4) higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw lift than females of similar feeding rate/feeding claw per min. This study is the first one to demonstrate that taking higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw per min than comparable sized females, and taking higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw lift than females of similar feeding rate/claw per min are used as additional compensatory mechanisms for male fiddler crabs to compensate for having only one feeding claw.