{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01985906470211403, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.007692307692308, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Does shell species occupied influence individuality and behavioural syndromes in the defensive behaviour of three Hawaiian hermit crabs?

This study examined the phenomena of individuality and behavioural syndromes in three species of hermit crabs (Calcinus laevimanus, C. elegans and C. haigae) and how they are affected by the level of predator protection afforded by a shell. To examine the role of the level of predation risk, the duration of withdrawal responses of individuals was recorded following tactile manipulation under control and alarm odour conditions. To examine how shell species occupied influenced the duration of withdrawal and behavioural syndromes, crabs were in either preferred or unpreferred species of gastropod shells in C. laevimanus and C. elegans and one of the two preferred species in C. haigae. In C. laevimanus and C. elegans, but not C. haigae, crabs showed strong individuality in their withdrawal responses to predation risk, and the withdrawal response was longer in unpreferred than in preferred shells. Shell species occupied did not significantly affect the responses to levels of predation risk. In all the three crab species, the ranks of individuals in the mean length of response in one test condition were significantly correlated with the ranks in the other condition, but the strength of this behavioural syndrome was strongest for C. laevimanus and weakest for C. haigae. Finally, the strengths of the behavioural syndromes were similar in preferred and unpreferred shells for both C. laevimanus and C. elegans.