DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bvzt
title: Data from: Claw-waving rate of male Austruca perplexa in peak and off-peak breeding periods

description: This dataset contains the data of male (Austruca perplexa) waves produced
 towards females within a 30 s period in peak and off-peak breeding periods
 which is described in the paper: ‘Tina FW, Muramatsu D (2021) Small males
 of the fiddler crab Austruca perplexa court more in the off-peak breeding
 period when large males court less. Journal of Ethology,
 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-021-00703-4’.  The data were
 collected to show how Austruca perplexa males adjust the rate of courtship
 waving in relation to their relative body size in the local population
 and/or the body size of females (potential mates) in peak and off-peak
 breeding periods.  Explanation of the dataset:
 "obs.date" indicates observed date, "period" indicates
 the peak or off-peak breeding period, "m.CW" indicates male
 carapace width (mm), "m.SC" indicates the size class of males,
 "f.CW" indicates female carapace width (mm), "f.SC"
 indicates the size class of females, "wav.rate" indicates the
 number of waves per minute, "waves" indicates wave counts within
 30 seconds (observed time), "tide" indicates the days from the
 spring lowest tide, "p.ID" indicates pair ID (the pair of waving
 male and audience female), respectively.  Main results of this
 study are that (1) large males produced more waves in the peak breeding
 period than in the off-peak period and their waving rates were higher
 towards large females than towards small females, but (2) small males
 produced more waves in the off-peak breeding period and their waving rates
 were not different towards large or small females. Our findings suggest
 that waving more in the off-peak breeding period may increase the chance
 of small males to acquire females rather than competing against large
 males during the peak breeding period.
description: All the data were obtained from the population of
 <em>Austruca perplexa </em>at Ban Nai Thung intertidal mudflat
 in Thasala District (8°38′41.76″N; 99°57′04.54″E), Nakhon Si Thammarat
 Province in southern Thailand in April (peak breeding period) and December
 (off-peak breeding period), 2019 on the third, fourth, and fifth tidal
 days after the spring tide. In both periods, 30 large males (15 were
 waving towards large females and 15 were waving towards small females) and
 30 small males (15 were waving towards large females and 15 were waving
 towards small females) were randomly selected by visual observation and
 their waving display was video recorded for 30 s. After finishing each
 video recording, both the waving male and audience female were caught to
 measure their body size. Large and small crabs were decided based on the
 mean carapace width of the crab population; males smaller than 14 mm and
 females smaller than 13 mm in carapace width were treated as “small” and
 other crabs were treated as “large”. From the video recordings, the number
 of male waves within the 30 s period was counted and the waving rate (male
 waves/min) was calculated. The data were analysed by glmmML (generalised
 linear models with clustering), t-tests, and Spearman rank
 correlations.
description: Please contact Journal of Ethology
 (https://www.springer.com/journal/10164/contact-the-journal) for secondary
 use of this dataset.