Nemertean predation on the tropical fiddler crab Uca musica

Abstract

We saw 79 predatory interactions between a new speciesof monostiliferous, suctorial hoplonemertean and thefiddler crabs Uca musica (77 cases) and U.stenodactylus (2 cases). At an intertidal sand barin the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, worms ateabout 0.1% of the adult crab population per day. Themode of attack and the spatial and temporaldistributions of interactions suggest the worm is anambush predator. When struck by a worm‘s sticky,mucous-covered proboscis, crabs produced copious foamfrom their buccal area. Mucous-laden crabs thatescaped, again foamed indicating that the foam maycounteract the mucus. If the attack led to a kill,the struggling crab soon became quiescent, as istypical in other nemertean-prey interactions. Theworm inverted its proboscis, found ingress to thecrab‘s body and fed. Crabs escaped by autotomizingappendages entwined by the proboscis, by forcefullypulling away and by remaining quiescent, then movingaway when the worm inverted its proboscis and beforeit entered the crab. Immobility, a response to visualpredators, may falsely indicate paralysis to the wormand cause it to invert its proboscis, therebyproviding the crab with an opportunity to escape. This predator-prey interaction seems to incorporategeneralized predator tactics and fortuitous preydefenses that give worms and crabs about an evenchance of success.