I have been collecting mole crabs from a sandy intertidal area in southern coast of Jawa, Indonesia. The monthly collection showed female dominated (90% of specimen).
Hi Yusli!
When do you see this pattern? Every month over the year or at some months only?
Br,
aB
Hi Alexandra, it happened every month. I have been collecting them in one year.
Have you checked up from literature on functional sex ratios among this species? is the area polluted? the high skewed ratio may be an adaptive response of the population to environmental conditions.
So I understand this is only true for one site. Several ecological factors could lead to this pattern. Is there a big morphological difference between males and females of your site (=> differences in exposure to specific predators or parasites)? Differential resistance to abiotic parameters could also play an important role in shaping this pattern.
Br,
AlexandrE
Hi, Azubuike... Do you have a specific paper explaining the sex ratios of mole crabs? The area is not polluted, but there is sand mining in the surrounding area.
...Sand-mining is also a notable form of environmental disturbance, and since the habitat-use between the sexes often differ both spatially and temporally, such environmental alterations can affect sex-ratios.
..I don't have any paper on skewed-sex ratios in the mole crab, but i think i may have one or two on some other crustaceans. I'll check it up and upload it. Cheers
..this is one of the papers, 'will upload the other later.
Cheers
This answer is not directly related to the species you discuss but in some groups of marine copepods we often see skewed sex ratios. The underlying causes are unclear but may be related to sex-behaviour moderated predation. There is a project running at present investigating this - check out Limnol Oceanogr., 55, 2193–2206 and an article in NERC PlanetEarth - http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/features/story.aspx?id=1552
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