title: Territorial battles between fiddler crab species.
abstract: Many species worldwide are impacted by habitat loss. This may result in increased competition both within species and between species. Many studies have demonstrated that when two previously non-overlapping species are forced to compete over a resource, one species is likely to become dominant over the other. This study explores the impact a larger species of fiddler crab (Tabuca elegans-previously known asUca elegans) has when invading an area previously used solely by a smaller species (Austruca mjoebergi-previously known asUca mjoebergi). Here we show that, while there are some detrimental effects of living next to a heterospecific, they are relatively minor. New heterospecific neighbours fight more regularly with resident crabs, but each fight is no longer or more escalated than those between the resident and a new conspecific male. The residents are not specifically targeted by intruding heterospecifics, thus, given the large advantage of having a heterospecific neighbour in terms of lowered competition for females, the overall impact of species mixing is probably not as negative as might have been predicted.
authors.affiliation: Research School of Biology , The Australian National University , Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200 , Australia.
authors.forename: H L
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0886-0665
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Research School of Biology , The Australian National University , Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200 , Australia.
authors.forename: P R Y
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Backwell
keywords: Uca; competition; fiddler crab; interspecific; territory