Brousseau D J., Filipowicz A, Baglivo J A.
Department of Biology, Fairfield University, 06430, Fairfield, CT, USA
J Exp Mar Biol Ecol. 2001 Jul 30;262(2):199-210. doi: 10.1016/s0022-0981(01)00290-8.
Laboratory studies have shown that the nonindigenous Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus, readily consumes three species of commercial bivalves: blue mussels, Mytilus edulis, soft-shell clams, Mya arenaria, and oysters, Crassostrea virginica. Although crabs can eat bivalves of a wide size range, they preferred the smaller prey (</=10 mm SL). Prey critical size limits exist for M. edulis and C. virginica, but not M. arenaria, possibly because of differences in shell characteristics among the three species. Crabs preferred M. arenaria over both M. edulis and C. virginica, and M. edulis was strongly preferred over C. virginica in pairwise comparison tests. Experiments to determine feeding rates on mussels showed that H. sanguineus can consume large numbers of mussels daily (12.7+/-11.6 mussels day(-1); sexes pooled; N=59). Mussel consumption rates increased with size of the predator and male crabs consumed more mussels than did similarly sized female crabs. The high densities of Hemigrapsus that occur in the wild, their effectiveness as predators of juvenile bivalves and their large appetites suggest an important role for these predators in restructuring the prey communities in habitats into which they have been introduced.
实验室研究表明，非本地的亚洲滨蟹（Hemigrapsus sanguineus）很容易捕食三种商业双壳贝类：蓝贻贝（Mytilus edulis）、软壳蛤（Mya arenaria）和牡蛎（Crassostrea virginica）。虽然螃蟹能够捕食各种大小的双壳贝类，但它们更喜欢较小的猎物（壳长小于等于10毫米）。对于蓝贻贝和弗吉尼亚牡蛎来说，存在猎物临界大小限制，但软壳蛤不存在，这可能是由于这三种贝类的壳特征不同。在成对比较试验中，螃蟹更喜欢软壳蛤，而不是蓝贻贝和弗吉尼亚牡蛎，并且强烈偏好蓝贻贝而非弗吉尼亚牡蛎。测定对贻贝摄食率的实验表明，亚洲滨蟹每天能够捕食大量贻贝（12.7±11.6只贻贝/天；雌雄合并；N = 59）。贻贝的摄食率随着捕食者体型的增大而增加，并且雄蟹比体型相似的雌蟹捕食更多的贻贝。亚洲滨蟹在野外的高密度分布、它们作为双壳贝类幼体捕食者的有效性以及它们巨大的食量，表明这些捕食者在它们被引入的栖息地中对猎物群落的结构重组起着重要作用。
