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Behavioral Ecology Vol. 14 No. 1: 74-79
© 2003 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Analysis of multiple aspects of a repeated signal: power and rate of rapping during shell fights in hermit crabs

Mark Briffa, Robert W. Elwood and Jon M. Russ

School of Biology and Biochemistry, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK

Address correspondence to M. Briffa, School of Biology and Biochemistry, Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT7 1AE, UK. E-mail: m.briffa{at}qub.ac.uk.

Repeated activities used by animals during contests are assumed to act as signals advertising the quality of the sender. However, their exact functions are not well understood and observations fit only a limited set of the predictions made by models of signaling systems. Experimental studies of contest behavior tend to focus on analysis of the rate of signaling, but individual performances may also vary in magnitude. Both of these features can vary between outcomes and within contests. We examined changes in the rate and power of shell rapping during shell fights in hermit crabs. We show that both rate and power decline during the course of the encounter and that the duration of pauses between bouts of shell rapping increases with an index of the total effort put into each bout. This supports the idea that the vigor of shell rapping is regulated by fatigue and could therefore act as a signal of stamina. By examining different interacting components of this complex activity, we gain greater insight into its function than would be achieved by investigating a single aspect in isolation.

Key words: aggression, hermit crabs, multicomponent signals, Pagarus bernhardus, power, repeated signal.


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M. Briffa
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Behav. Ecol., May 1, 2006; 17(3): 510 - 514.
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