Abstract Crabs are important predators known to influence the distribution, density, behaviour, and physical traits of their prey in marine ecosystems. However, the extent to which crabs, particularly generalists, differentiate or select among closely related prey species is less understood. Here, we examine prey preference in the red rock crab, Cancer productus Randall, 1840, between three closely related species of gastropod prey – Nucella ostrina (Gould, 1852), N. canaliculata (Duclos, 1832), and N. lamellosa (Gmelin, 1791). Crabs were presented with three individuals of each species distributed evenly in a 3 × 3 grid, and gastropods were ranked in the order that they were consumed. C. productus demonstrated a “preference” for N. lamellosa over both N. canaliculata (p = 0.019) and N. ostrina (p = 0.003), but were most likely to attack the first and then next gastropod they recognized, regardless of species, as they worked through the grid (p

中文翻译：

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螃蟹巨蟹座在三种相似的腹足动物物种（Nucella spp.）中选择猎物的模式

摘要 螃蟹是已知的重要捕食者，会影响其猎物在海洋生态系统中的分布、密度、行为和身体特征。然而，螃蟹，特别是通才，在密切相关的猎物物种中区分或选择的程度尚不清楚。在这里，我们检查了红岩蟹，Cancer productus Randall，1840 年，在三种密切相关的腹足动物猎物物种之间的猎物偏好 - Nucella ostrina (Gould, 1852)、N. canaliculata (Duclos, 1832) 和 N. lamellosa (Gmelin , 1791)。将每个物种的三个个体均匀分布在 3 × 3 网格中呈现给螃蟹，腹足动物按照它们被食用的顺序排列。C. productus 表现出对 N. lamellosa 的“偏好”，而不是 N. canaliculata (p = 0.019) 和 N. ostrina (p = 0.003)，