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Sand-bubbler crabs Scopmera qlobosa inhabit burrows in the upper tidal sand flat and form droves in the water-saturated area of the lower tidal flat. To elucidate the function of the movements between the microhabitats in this species, I investigated the change in population density, crab body size and reproductive conditions of both sexes within each microhabitat. Omgerous females were found in the burrow area while spent females (releasing zoea recently) were concentrated in the watersaturated area. Gonad weights of nonovigerous females in the burrow area were higher than those in the water-saturated area. Both male and female crabs in the water-saturated area, where diet quality (organic nitrogen content of the surface substratum) exceeded that m the burrow area, spent more time foraging and suffered less from interactions with neighbours than crabs in the burrow area In contrast, although both gonad and hepatopancreas weights of males decreased with tune in the early to mid reproductive season, there was no difference in male body condition between microhabitats. Few crabs moved between the microhabitats in the mid to late reproductive season, indicating that most crabs active in the water-saturated area during low tides did not return to the burrow area during high tides, differing from the movements of other ocypodid species. S. globosa have alternative mating behavlours, underground copulation (UC) and surface copulation (SC). UC, followed by omposition, was dominant in the burrow area, though both UC and SC were conducted there. In contrast, SC, not always followed by oviposition, was dominant in the water-saturated area. Females maximized their use of the microhabitats, 1.e. the burrow area for mating, oviposition and incubation and the watersaturated area for foragmg and partly for mating. The operational sex ratio was biased towards males in the burrow area and towards females in the water-saturated area, due to the fact that the last male to mate fertilizes most of the eggs extruded by a female. A high proportion of large (1.e. older) crabs of both sexes stayed in the burrow area during the reproductive season, whereas small (young) crabs spent most of their tune in the water-saturated area for growth. Thus, the crabs made suitable use of their time in different microhabitats under a life history strategy.

Movements between microhabitats depending on reproduction and life history in the sand-bubbler crab Scopimera globosa