Biology of the Land Crabs

Front Cover
Warren W. Burggren, Brian R. McMahon
Cambridge University Press, Apr 29, 1988 - Nature - 479 pages
Interest in land crabs has burgeoned as biologists have increasingly focused on the evolution of terrestriality. Before the publication of this volume in 1988, there had been no single comprehensive source of information to serve biologists interested in the diverse aspects of terrestrial decapod crustacean. Biology of the Land Crabs was the first synthesis of recent and long-established findings on brachyuran and anomuran crustaceans that have evolved varying degrees of adaptation for life on land. Chapters by leading researchers take a coordinated evolutionary and comparative approach to systematics and evolution, ecology, behaviour, reproduction, growth and molting, ion and water balance, respiration and circulation, and energetics and locomotion. Each discusses how terrestrial species have become adapted from ancestral freshwater or marine forms. With its extensive bibliography and comprehensive index, including the natural history of nearly eighty species of brachyuran and anomuran crabs, Biology of the Land Crabs will continue to be an invaluable reference for researchers and advanced students.
 

Contents

EVOLUTION SYSTEMATICS
7
Adiyodi Rita G Vatsyayana Center of Invertebrate Reproduction Depart
19
Phylogeny and evolution of land
47
ECOLOGY
55
Interactions with the biotic environment
65
Competition for food and habitat
75
Growth and longevity
88
Effects of land crabs on environment
94
Ecological physiology of land crabs and the evolution of air breathing
283
CIRCULATION
298
Cardiovascular morphology
299
Cardiovascular physiology
313
a circulatory problem with terrestrial life
328
Conclusions
330
ENERGETICS AND LOCOMOTION
333
Introduction
334

BEHAVIOR
97
REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
139
GROWTH AND MOLTING
186
Patterns of growth
197
Autotomy and regeneration
206
Structure of gas exchange organs
250
Ventilatory mechanisms
257
Gas exchange and metabolic rate
263
Ventilatory control mechanisms
265
Oxygen transport by hemolymph
266
Carbon dioxide transport by hemolymph
274
Hemolymph acidbase balance
275
Respiratory compensation for environmental change
278
Digestive system
337
Metabolism
345
Animal energetics
353
Locomotion
357
Energy budgets
375
Conclusion
376
EPILOGUE
378
Natural histories of selected terrestrial crabs
382
References
391
Introduction
399
Author index
447
Subject index
464
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