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On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)

Opposed to most crayfish species that inhabit permanent bodies of water, a unique burrowing lifestyle has evolved several times throughout the crayfish phylogeny. Burrowing crayfish are considered to be semi-terrestrial, as they burrow to the groundwater—creating complex burrows that occasionally re...

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Autores principales: Diehl, Kaine M., Storer, Nicoleena M., Wells, Hogan D., Davis, Destinee A., Loughman, Zachary J., Graham, Zackary A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565396/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36240144
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273540
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author Diehl, Kaine M.
Storer, Nicoleena M.
Wells, Hogan D.
Davis, Destinee A.
Loughman, Zachary J.
Graham, Zackary A.
author_facet Diehl, Kaine M.
Storer, Nicoleena M.
Wells, Hogan D.
Davis, Destinee A.
Loughman, Zachary J.
Graham, Zackary A.
author_sort Diehl, Kaine M.
collection PubMed
description Opposed to most crayfish species that inhabit permanent bodies of water, a unique burrowing lifestyle has evolved several times throughout the crayfish phylogeny. Burrowing crayfish are considered to be semi-terrestrial, as they burrow to the groundwater—creating complex burrows that occasionally reach 3 m in depth. Because burrowing crayfishes spend most of their lives within their burrow, we lack a basic understanding of the behavior and natural history of these species. However, recent work suggests that burrowing crayfishes may exhibit a higher level of surface activity than previously thought. In the current study, we conducted a behavioral study of the Little Brown Mudbug, Lacunicambarus thomai using video surveillance to determine their degree of surface activity and behavioral patterns. Throughout 664 hrs of footage, we observed a surprisingly high amount of activity at the surface of their burrows—both during the day and night. The percentage of time that individual crayfish was observed at the surface ranged from 21% to 69% per individual, with an average of 42.48% of the time spent at the surface across all crayfish. Additionally, we created an ethogram based on six observed behaviors and found that each behavior had a strong circadian effect. For example, we only observed a single observation of foraging on vegetation during the day, whereas 270 observations of this behavior were documented at night. Overall, our results suggest that burrowing crayfishes may exhibit higher levels of surface activity than previously thought. To increase our understanding of burrowing crayfish behaviors ecology, we encourage the continued use of video-recorded observations in the field and the laboratory.
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spelling pubmed-95653962022-10-15 On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai) Diehl, Kaine M. Storer, Nicoleena M. Wells, Hogan D. Davis, Destinee A. Loughman, Zachary J. Graham, Zackary A. PLoS One Research Article Opposed to most crayfish species that inhabit permanent bodies of water, a unique burrowing lifestyle has evolved several times throughout the crayfish phylogeny. Burrowing crayfish are considered to be semi-terrestrial, as they burrow to the groundwater—creating complex burrows that occasionally reach 3 m in depth. Because burrowing crayfishes spend most of their lives within their burrow, we lack a basic understanding of the behavior and natural history of these species. However, recent work suggests that burrowing crayfishes may exhibit a higher level of surface activity than previously thought. In the current study, we conducted a behavioral study of the Little Brown Mudbug, Lacunicambarus thomai using video surveillance to determine their degree of surface activity and behavioral patterns. Throughout 664 hrs of footage, we observed a surprisingly high amount of activity at the surface of their burrows—both during the day and night. The percentage of time that individual crayfish was observed at the surface ranged from 21% to 69% per individual, with an average of 42.48% of the time spent at the surface across all crayfish. Additionally, we created an ethogram based on six observed behaviors and found that each behavior had a strong circadian effect. For example, we only observed a single observation of foraging on vegetation during the day, whereas 270 observations of this behavior were documented at night. Overall, our results suggest that burrowing crayfishes may exhibit higher levels of surface activity than previously thought. To increase our understanding of burrowing crayfish behaviors ecology, we encourage the continued use of video-recorded observations in the field and the laboratory. Public Library of Science 2022-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9565396/ /pubmed/36240144 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273540 Text en © 2022 Diehl et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Diehl, Kaine M.
Storer, Nicoleena M.
Wells, Hogan D.
Davis, Destinee A.
Loughman, Zachary J.
Graham, Zackary A.
On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)
title On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)
title_full On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)
title_fullStr On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)
title_full_unstemmed On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)
title_short On the surface or down below: Field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the Little Brown Mudbug (Lacunicambarus thomai)
title_sort on the surface or down below: field observations reveal a high degree of surface activity in a burrowing crayfish, the little brown mudbug (lacunicambarus thomai)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9565396/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36240144
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273540
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