Abstract
The European shore crab Carcinus maenas is considered to rely on a female pheromone when mating. Evidence, however, is scarce on how the urine pheromone in itself affects males. We investigated male primer and releaser responses to female pheromones with methods that minimized effects from females, delivering female urine either as a pump-generated plume or deposited on a polyurethane sponge. We delivered the pheromone at different concentrations in far, near, and close/contact range to get a picture of how distance affects behavioral response. Our results show that substances in premolt female urine (PMU) function as primer and potent short-range releaser pheromones. Based on the olfactometer and sponge tests, we conclude that PMU stimulus in itself is sufficient to elicit increased search and mating-specific behaviors such as posing, posing search, cradle carrying, and stroking. Pheromone concentrations do not seem to be important for attenuating search and posing as long as the level is above a certain threshold concentration. Instead, pheromone levels seem to play a role in male acceptance of females, recruiting more males to respond, and generating better responses with increasing concentration.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Christer Brönmark, Dr. Almut Kelber, Dr. Jamie Theobald, and two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive criticism on the manuscript. We thank the ever-helpful staff at Klubban Biological Station for providing animals and facilities. Grants from the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund and The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences, and Spatial Planning provided financial support.
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Ekerholm, M., Hallberg, E. Primer and Short-Range Releaser Pheromone Properties of Premolt Female Urine from the Shore Crab Carcinus maenas. J Chem Ecol 31, 1845–1864 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-005-5930-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-005-5930-9