Author(s)

Ouhang Gong

Corresponding Author

Ouhang Gong

ABSTRACT

Pairs of horseshoe crabs arrive at the beach and spawn during spring. Single males go to the beach as well, and they make competition against males with partners for fertilization. The group size of satellite males is so large that there is a nonrandom distribution in which habitat selection and local environmental conditions are not responsible. The experimental manipulations show that satellites cannot only copy other male satellites' behaviors. According to the evidence revealed by experiments and observations, the possible explanation about the nonrandom distribution of satellite males located among nesting pairs is that it is more likely for unattached satellite males to attract females than others. To analyze the data from this study, R was used to generate the confusion matrix, which checks if the predictable value is close to the actual value, logistic regression, which checked if the model should be modified, and logit function to evaluate the model. As a result, logistic regression showed that the model should be modified because it was not proper. Width and weight were selected as variables. In conclusion, the logistic regression showed that a male horseshoe crab with larger width and weight was more likely to own satellites. Also, the color of a horseshoe crab was related to the satellite.

KEYWORDS

horseshoe crabs, satellite, logistic regression