Shell occupation by the land hermit crab Coenobita violascens (Anomura, Coenobitidae) from Phuket Island, Thailand

• Autor(a) principal: Bundhitwongrut,Thanakhom
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Nauplius
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-64972018000100202
• topic: Shell use; shell quality; terrestrial hermit crab

Abstract Shell occupation by the land hermit crab Coenobita violascens Heller, 1862 was investigated from January 2011 to March 2012 on Phuket Island in the Andaman Coast of Thailand. The samples of C. violascens were collected monthly using multiple quadrat sampling. Twenty shell species from 11 families were found occupying by C. violascens, which were mainly marine gastropods (90%). The three most common occupied shell species were Chicoreus brunneus (Link, 1807) (21.3% of hermits), followed by Filifusus filamentosus (Röding, 1798) (14.9%) and Laevistrombus canarium (Linnaeus, 1758) (14.9%). Biconical shells and those with ovate apertures were the most commonly occupied shell types. Furthermore, individual C. violascens probably occupy the shells of at least three different gastropod species during their lifetime. Interestingly, C. violascens shows a tendency of occupying specific categories of shells in relation to shell species, shape and aperture shape. Other aspects of shell occupation by C. violascens compared to congeneric species are also discussed.