The successful use of unvegetated habitat is mediated by behaviour.
M. larisulcanus seem to have developed burying as their primary response to the presence of predators, and thus select habitats where they can bury if needed.
When burying is not an option, as a secondary preference, they move to habitats that are structurally complex.
Whether M. latisulcatus have behavioural mechanisms that allow them to escape predation once in these habitats, or they simply rely on reduced foraging ability of the predator is unknown.
In many cases, simply moving into vegetation does not provide increased protection (Main, 1987).
Juvenile p. esculentus change their behaviour depending on the morphology of the seagrass in which they are sheltering (Kenyon et al., 1995).
Predators may also switch tactics once they enter vegetated areas, and thus maintain predation rates (e.g. seahorses change from active searching in simple habitats to ambush predation in complex habitats, James and Heck, 1994).
The intertidal area frequently used by M. latisulcatus may also be a favourable habitat if the abundance of predators is less than in subtidal areas.
Potential fish predators were found to be rare in the preferred unvegetated intertidal habitat of Met. is in Kuwait (Bishop and Khan 1999).