Dyson, M. L http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9963-354X
Perez, D. M
Curran, T
McCullough, E. L
Backwell, P. R. Y
Funding for this research was provided by:
Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP160100316)
Open University Travel and Subsistance Grant (RTSF-17-11)
Article History
Received: 25 November 2019
Revised: 22 July 2020
Accepted: 27 August 2020
First Online: 4 September 2020
Compliance with ethical standards
:
: The authors have no conflict of interests.
: This research was approved by the Australian National University Animal Ethics Committee (permit A2015/54). We limited the handling and the amount of time each crab was used as much as possible. No crab was injured during the research, and they all continued their regular activities after release. Between trials, the females were kept in the shade, in individual cups with a small amount of seawater. Females were used in a maximum of five different trials and then released to continue mate-searching. Under natural conditions, females visit up to 20 males before selecting a mate, and repeated testing did not appear to stress females or alter their behavior in any way. The work was conducted under a research permit from the Darwin City Council (permit no. 3648724).