Nematodes Infect, But Do Not Manipulate Digging By, Sand Crabs, Lepidopa benedicti

摘要: We examined sand crabs (Lepidopa benedicti) for endoparasites, and found the only parasite consistently infecting studied population were small nematodes. Because many nematodes have complex life cycles involving multiple hosts, often strongly manipulating their we hypothesized that alter behavior of crab hosts. predicted more heavily infected would spend time above than less crabs. Our data indicate infection by was not correlated with duration spent sand. also suggest organisms living in sandy beaches may benefit from relatively low loads due to diversity species habitat.