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Same resource, different benefits: hermit crab shell structure advantages owners, but not intruders in agonistic interactions

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Abstract

Resources may confer advantages by enhancing their owners’ fighting ability (resource holding potential; RHP). While the resource-correlated RHP hypothesis has been recognized as a determinant of agonistic success in different taxa, this has mostly been based on assessment of either the intruder or the owner, but only rarely in both contestants. We tested whether the internal structure of shells affects hermit crabs’ RHP, both as owners defending the shell against eviction and as intruders attempting to gain access to an occupied shell. We conducted contests (n = 60) to compare the success in shell eviction by intruders in intact shells vs. in shells with the columella artificially reduced, and the success of shell retention by owners in intact shells vs. shells with the columella reduced. The internal configuration of the shell showed different resource-correlated RHP effects depending on the individual’s role in the fight. The presence of a columella in the intruder’s shell did not affect the likelihood that they would evict their opponents. However, owners resisted more evictions in shells with intact columella than those in shells with reduced columella. Our results demonstrate that the same resource can offer different RHP advantages to owners and intruders during an agonistic interaction.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) for scholarship no. 709365 and the Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica, PAPIIT IN-216418, IN-218321. We specially thank Dr. Renato Peña who provided the facilities at the Unidad Piloto de Maricultivos (UPIMA) to perform the experiments, Lili Pelayo and Armando Martinez for their technical support in the field, Dr. Maite Mascaró, Dr. Javier Alcocer, Dr. Carlos Rosas, Dr. Karla Kruesi, and Dr. Patricia Briones for reviewing this article and Dr. Lynna Kiere for English editing.

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  1. Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Ciudad Universitaria 3000, C.P. 04510, Coyoacán, Mexico, Mexico

    Luis M. Burciaga & Aldair Alvarez

  2. Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.P. 04510, Mexico, Mexico

    Guillermina Alcaraz

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  1. Luis M. Burciaga
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Correspondence to Guillermina Alcaraz.

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Burciaga, L.M., Alvarez, A. & Alcaraz, G. Same resource, different benefits: hermit crab shell structure advantages owners, but not intruders in agonistic interactions. Hydrobiologia 848, 2539–2550 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04573-2

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