why do crabs eat their babies

For many marine invertebrates, the first stage of life occurs as small larvae in plankton. The plasticity of planktonic larval life has surprised many scientists, just as we are doing with invertebrate subjects. As noted by Emery in 1973, these larvae face a “mouth wall” ready to consume them. More recently, Miller and Morgan (2014) stated that larvae navigate a “glove of ephemeral predators.” A variety of adaptations by both larvae and adults attempt to change the rules of this predatory game. Some larvae have chemicals that make them unpalatable. Others have spikes to scare away predators. Some larvae can sink or run away in the presence of an hungry mouth. Adults do their part by releasing larvae synchronously during less predatory times or by moving to new areas with fewer predators to release larvae. Many marine invertebrates feed on junk food, essentially straining the ocean’s plankton junk food. But what do good parents do when their child gets mixed up in the food bowl? European yellow and blue crabs reduce their appetite when they first release their young. Note I say reduce and not just stop. Hungry parents still need to eat. Recent female crabs that carry eggs, i.e. eggs, eat only 25-30% of their own larvae. Not eggs… they “eaten” eating about 90% of the larvae. However, a year later in 2007, there was little difference between egg-bearing and non-egg-bearing females in eating their own larvae. The authors hypothesized and then tested the idea that hungrier females would consume more of their larvae. Twenty-two days of starvation increased the larvae’s cannibalism by 30%! Read more: Why are phones so expensive? Miller, S. and Morgan, S. (2014). Time variation for cannibal crabs: implications for reproductive success Marine ecology DOI: 10.1111/maec.12172Emery AR (1973) Comparative ecology and functional skeletal structure of fourteen species of limb fish (Pisces: Pomacentridae) at Alligator Reef, Florida Keys. Bulletin of Marine Science, 23, 649-770.Read more: Why are people so mean to me

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