Crustaceans are known for their ability to autotomize and regenerate their appendages. The appendages that are most often autotomized are their chela, often specialized as claws, which serve essential functions including foraging, fighting, mating, and predator defense. Crustaceans with autotomized or regenerated chelae may suffer decreases in their ability to perform these functions compared to individuals with intact or original claws. It is noteworthy that although regenerated claws can grow back to the expected size of an original claw, regenerated claws often differ from original claws in external morphology and internal musculature. Both male and female crayfishes wield a pair of enlarged claws. It surprisingly remains unknown how the regeneration of crayfish claws influences the claws’ ability to generate pinching forces, which has previously been shown to influence the outcome of territorial contests. We investigated the relationship between claw regeneration and claw strength among male and female virile crayfish, Faxonius virilis (Hagen 1870). We found that maximal pinching forces of regenerated claws were weaker than the maximal pinching forces of original claws in both sexes (36% and 40% weaker in males and females, respectively). Further, regenerated claws had proportionally less muscle mass compared to original claws of equivalent size. These results present evidence of how claw regeneration influences pinching strength in crayfishes and suggest that such regeneration may be the functional mechanism that produces dishonest (large but weak) claws in crayfishes, but behavioral observations are required to support this hypothesis.

中文翻译：

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雄性小龙虾 Faxonius virilis (Hagen, 1870) (十足目: Astacidea: Cambaridae) 的再生爪与原始爪相比产生较弱的挤压力

甲壳类动物以其附肢自动切除和再生的能力而闻名。最常被自动切除的附属物是它们的螯肢，通常专门作为爪子，具有觅食、战斗、交配和捕食者防御等基本功能。与具有完整或原始爪子的个体相比，具有自动切割或再生螯合的甲壳类动物执行这些功能的能力可能会降低。值得注意的是，虽然再生的爪子可以长回原始爪子的预期大小，但再生爪子的外部形态和内部肌肉组织往往与原始爪子不同。雄性和雌性小龙虾都有一对扩大的爪子。令人惊讶的是，小龙虾爪子的再生如何影响爪子产生夹紧力的能力仍然未知，此前已证明这会影响领土争夺的结果。我们调查了雄性和雌性雄性小龙虾 Faxonius virilis (Hagen 1870) 爪再生和爪强度之间的关系。我们发现再生爪的最大夹紧力在两性中都弱于原始爪的最大夹紧力（雄性和雌性分别弱 36% 和 40%）。此外，与同等大小的原始爪子相比，再生爪子的肌肉质量成比例地减少。这些结果提供了爪再生如何影响小龙虾捏力的证据，并表明这种再生可能是在小龙虾中产生不诚实（大而弱）爪的功能机制，但需要行为观察来支持这一假设。