Waving robotic crab arm attracts females




The results may help explain why males protect their smaller neighbours.




Wave of waving

When a female wanders through a neighbourhood, “you see part of the mudflat light up” with waving yellow claws, said ecologist Sophie Callander from the Australian National University in Canberra.

Dr Callander and her colleagues used a fully adjustable robotic arm – called Robocrab – to determine what female crabs are looking for in a mate.

Dr Callander set up three robotic arms around a female crab, and sat beneath the unforgiving Australian sun for many hours recording the females’ reactions to different combinations of wave speeds and claw size.



Previous work has shown that larger males sometimes go to the aid of smaller males when an intruder is trying to steal a smaller male’s burrow.


“If larger males can retain smaller neighbours they might… increase their mating success,” she told BBC News.


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