Abstract

The effect of food and shelter availability on agonistic behavior and hierarchical orders of crayfish Cambarellus zempoalensis was studied in the laboratory. Agonistic activity was evaluated on the frequency of recorded interactions for male and female tetrads. Individual rank, linearity and stability of hierarchical orders were also determined. In all tetrads, individuals with available food and shelter occupied more frequently higher ranks. Starved or shelterless males and females showed important differences in the frequency of agonistic interactions and in the hierarchical orders. Females exhibited an important decrease in their agonistic activity, an increase in the linearity and a decrease in the stability of the hierarchical orders. Males showed increases in the frequency of agonistic encounters and an increase in the stability of the orders. These results support the proposal that food and shelter play an important role, although of different magnitude for each sex, in the determination of individual rank, hierarchical order and agonistic activity in Cambarellus zempoalensis.

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