Sexual Difference in Resource Use in Hermit Crabs; Consequences and Causes

Abstract

Most ecological theory assumes that a species consists of identical individuals, or of individuals whose properties are determined by age or size. In many species, however, there are significant differences in the ecological roles of males and females. Such between-sex differences are potentially important, both in determining the nature of population regulation within a species, and in determining the nature of interactions between species. Although ecologists have devoted large amounts of effort to quantifying the differences in resource use between species (e.g. Schoener, 1974), there has been relatively little quantification of differences in resource use between the sexes. The present paper is an attempt to quantify sex-related differences in resource use in two intertidal hermit crab species, and to analyze the causes and consequences of these differences.