Salinity preference of the shore crab Carcinus maenas in relation to coloration during intermoult and to prior acclimation

Intermoult Carcinus maenas (Crustacea: Decapoda) exhibit a range of carapace colours from green through orange to red, reflecting increasing lengths of intermoult duration, with red crabs less tolerant than green crabs of low salinity. The salinity preference behaviour of red and green colour forms...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology 1992-03, Vol.155 (2), p.145-159
Main Authors: McGaw, I.J., Naylor, E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acclimation
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
Carcinus maenas
Color
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Marine
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Salinity
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Summary:Intermoult Carcinus maenas (Crustacea: Decapoda) exhibit a range of carapace colours from green through orange to red, reflecting increasing lengths of intermoult duration, with red crabs less tolerant than green crabs of low salinity. The salinity preference behaviour of red and green colour forms was investigated. Red crabs vacated low salinities earlier than green crabs and green crabs had a lower tolerance range. Acclimation to either low or high salinities affected red and green crabs in a similar manner; the lower the acclimation salinity the earlier the time of exit from the low salinity and vice versa; the higher the acclimation salinity, the longer the crabs remained in the low salinity. Carcinus of both colour forms were shown to be able to discriminate between salinities separated by a difference as little as 0.5‰.
ISSN:0022-0981
1879-1697
DOI:10.1016/0022-0981(92)90059-J