Effect of tannins on the payability of mangrove leaves to the tropical sesarminid crab Neosarmatium smithi

Abstract

significant correlation has been demonstrated between consumption rates and flavolan concentration for the sesarminid crab Neosarmatium smithi feeding on litter of the mangrove Ceriops tagal. Further, a causative relation between flavolan presence and feeding rates was unequivocally verified by restoring the concentration of flavologlycans (FG) in leaf litter from which the FG present initially had been removed by aging in sea water.