Data from: Territorial battles between fiddler crab species

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 as Uca elegans) has when invading an area previously used solely by a smaller species (Austruca mjoebergi—previously known as Uca 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.

全球范围内诸多物种均受栖息地丧失的影响，这可能加剧种内与种间的竞争强度。已有大量研究证实，当两种此前无分布重叠的物种被迫共享某一资源时，其中一方大概率会占据竞争优势。本研究聚焦于大型招潮蟹物种优雅招潮蟹（Tabuca elegans——曾用名Uca elegans）入侵仅由小型物种莫氏招潮蟹（Austruca mjoebergi——曾用名Uca mjoebergi）占据的栖息地所产生的影响。研究结果显示，尽管与异种个体毗邻栖息会带来部分不利影响，但此类影响相对轻微。新增的异种邻蟹会更频繁地与定居蟹类发生争斗，但单次争斗的激烈程度并未高于定居蟹与新增同种雄性个体之间的争斗。入侵的异种个体并不会专门针对定居蟹个体发起攻击，因此，考虑到拥有异种邻蟹可大幅降低针对雌性个体的竞争压力，物种混合栖息的整体负面影响可能并未如此前预期那般严重。