Nyloned She Males

Fiddler crabs of the genus Uca are semi-terrestrial animals that live on intertidal mud or sand flats [24]. Courting males of approximately 18 species sometimes build various kinds of mud or sand structures at their burrows such as hoods, pillars, and lips [25]. It has been demonstrated that the mud pillars in U. beebei [26-28] and the sand hoods in U. musica [25,29] function as sexual signals in attracting females. The sensory trap hypothesis has been suggested to explain the female preference for particular courtship structures [12,30]. It was recently found that the preference for hoods in U. terpsichores [11] and for pillars in U. beebei [10] could increase with the perceived predation risk, because the structures provided a direct survival benefit to females by allowing them to escape predation. However, female U. terpsichores did not show a directional preference for exaggerated artificial hoods which were conspicuously larger than average-sized natural hoods [30]. Nevertheless, females may prefer larger structures within natural variation and this possibility has not yet been explored.

nyloned she males

Here we tested if both the preference for a courtship structure and the preference for the size of the structure in the fiddler crab Uca lactea were shaped by the need of females to escape predation. Males of U. lactea build semidomes using mud at their burrows and wave their large claws to attract females for mating. Previous studies suggest that semidome building in U. lactea is related to courtship signaling [31] and the semidome has a function to attract females [32]. Given the evidence of previous studies, females may prefer larger semidomes over smaller ones if the courtship structure could provide a greater survival benefit to them.

Visiting frequency by females to artificial burrows with full-sized, half-sized or without semidome under (a) predator-present condition and (b) predator-absent condition in the arena test.

Why do females prefer males with larger structures? Given that females in the non-courtship context showed a directional orientation bias for larger semidomes under predation threat regardless of the reproductive cycle, larger semidomes may be more salient visual cues to provide protection to females. The consistency between female choice in the mate-searching context and female orientation response in the predation context [12,28,29] indicates that the preference for the larger signal may have originated from the female bias to escape predation. In other words, mate choice is linked to male-built structures that can serve as a landmark to keep females safe against predators. Characteristics of the fiddler crab's visual system may also explain why females prefer larger semidomes. The horizontal resolving power of fiddler crabs' eyes is poor compared to their vertical resolving power [33-35]. Accordingly, fiddler crabs are better able to resolve objects in the vertical than in the horizontal plain. Semidomes which are tall enough to be imaged within the zone of the acute vertical resolution of their eyes may be most conspicuous to fiddler crab females [36]. In the absence of predator cues, however, females responded differently to different-sized semidomes depending on the reproductive cycle. During the non-reproductive periods, females did not show any difference in the preference for burrows with different treatments. In contrast, during the reproductive periods, they showed different responses. Although females did not more preferentially move to full-sized structures than half-sized structures, they did prefer moving to burrows with structures over moving to burrows without structures. This result presents a striking contrast to the case of U. musica (later correctly identified as U. terpichores) where females have an orientation preference to structures, even without predator cue [29]. Therefore, the predator-induced sensory trap hypothesis [12] cannot fully explain the female preference on the structure building in U. lactea, as the effect of large structures decreased in the absence of a predator. Rather, structure building itself may have been selected by female choice independent of predation pressure.

Semidome building behavior of the males starts at the beginning of the breeding season in early June. During 3-5 day periods when the number of courting males peaks in each semi-lunar cycle, many males construct semidomes using mud at their burrows. The mean SD height and width of semidomes was 17.6 5.0 mm and 26.7 5.6 mm [31].

The experiment was conducted during the intense courtship period in which most of males constructed semidomes at their burrows. We selected an observation plot (approx. area: 150 m2) randomly in each experimental day. For every three adjacent actively courting males with semidomes in the plot, we removed all the semidomes already built and replaced them with full-sized, half-sized artificial semidomes, and nothing respectively. We deployed 50-70 manipulated clusters of courting males in randomly chosen plots. Thus, different-sized semidomes were randomly distributed across the observation area. We made the artificial semidomes prior to the experiment. Artificial semidomes were made out of clay to imitate natural semidomes, and colored with khaki dyestuff outside. We produced artificial semidomes in two different sizes: full-sized semidomes (17 mm/25 mm in height/width) and half-sized semidomes (8.5 mm/25 mm in height/width). In order to easily identify the three different experimental groups of males (with full-sized, half-sized, and no semidomes) from a distance, we marked each burrow with one of three colored (red, yellow and blue) wooden sticks (diameter: 2 mm; length: 10 cm) by inserting a wooden stick 10 cm away from each burrow. We daily designated and switched the color for each experimental group in a random order to control the effect of color of wooden sticks on female choice.

The lady in the fedora, not my mother.I was going to comment that some of her all ready had but my tongue was too busy falling out the side of my mouth to form words. "Ungh-nghe," I said. I was about to leap over my desk to get her a chair when she smiled and said, "I'll take that as a yes." A chair wasn't necessary because she walked around my desk and sat on the edge, facing me. She crossed her legs. Her spaghetti-strapped mermaid gown - which also matched her fedora, by the way - was slit up the side. When she crossed her legs the slit opened and I could tell that her legs went all the way up. She either had a miraculous tan or her nylons ended somewhere around her neck because no lines were visible, but then she leaned over towards me holding out a cigarette and I could see she wasn't hiding much up around her neck, either. You could have hidden a Studebaker in there and never found it."Have a light?" she said.Three matches later I finally got one lit and touched it to the end of her cigarette, now gently held between lips that hinted at a smile. She inhaled and so did I. I so wanted to be that cigarette.She uncrossed and recrossed her legs, held her cigarette away from her with her left and raised my head with her right so that I was staring at her face rather than her richly coffee colored thighs. I halfway considered reaching for my richly Scotch colored bottle but that would have meant opening a drawer and I didn't want her to move."I can't get men to respond to me," she said."Mrfnik mrrgh?" I replied."I know. It's hard to believe."I nodded vigorously."At least not in the way I want them to respond to me.""Nrk flm." I shook my head in disbelief."And everyone's telling me you're the man who can help me."I smiled. Talking wasn't working so I smiled.She leaned over again and my eyes dropped to follow. She stroked my hair like I was her favorite puppy. "You want to help me, don't you?"I considered showing my appreciation like a favorite puppy would and decided...Okay, okay, okay.So this is what really happened. A good friend put together a survey targeted at management males a) who routinely interacted with management females b) who were close to them in the workplace hierarchy. The purpose of the survey was to determine males' non-conscious thoughts regarding women in management. It was a good effort. What it lacked was an understanding of how males 1) think and respond to such studies and 2) they're willingness to share their inner thoughts and feelings about female peers in the workplace.There were some suggestions that were survey-design specific, not male specific. These included making the questions progress logically based on subject matter and adding a progress bar. Tell the audience how long a survey will take if there are more than 10 questions, tell the audience how many questions there are if the average time to completion is more than 10 minutes. The last option is to give survey-takers the opportunity to save results and continue later (and remember to tease them so they will).Start with simple, polarity questions when the survey is long and without breaks. The introductory, simple questions teach the brain to answer with minimal effort, thus as cognitive load increases the brain's already trained to answer and the person isn't aware of the increased effort until the effort becomes major, as in they have to take recognizable time to ponder an answer rather than just evaluating the options provided.

It is better to start with psycho-emotive deliberative questions when the survey is visually short, like a single page. The survey-taker, when primed with something like "Please take our one page survey", will do a quick scan of the page to validate that it is, indeed, a single page however, the mind will not evaluate the complexity of the questions, only that the "promise" of a single page survey is honored. Having confirmed that, the mind decides the survey is "takeable" and dives in. Having made the psychological commitment (and not realizing they've done so) most people will complete the survey unless its complexity is a real thought crusher.Then came some suggestions based on the audience (all management males), their relationship to the survey giver (acquaintance if not friend) and the possible length of the survey (it was going to be long). 041b061a72