Egg production and shell relationship of the land hermit crab Coenobita scaevola (Anomura: Coenobitidae) from Wadi El-Gemal, Red Sea, Egypt

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

“…This finding is similar to previous studies on other coenobitid crabs, including C. rugosus by Boneka et al (1995) and Bundhitwongrut et al (2015) as well as Coenobita scaevola (Forskål, 1775) by Sallam et al (2008). These shell characters, especially internal volume and aperture width, seemingly comprise the main determinants for C. violascens shell occupation.…”

“…Coenobita violascens preferentially occupied shells of one gastropod species, as also noted earlier in other land hermit crabs (Sripathi et al, 1977;Abrams, 1978;Achituv and Ziskind, 1985;Guillen and Osorno, 1993;Walker, 1994;Barnes, 1999;Morrison and Spiller, 2006;Sallam et al, 2008;Laidre and Vermeij, 2012;Bundhitwongrut et al, 2015). The different proportions of occupied shell species may infer active behavior of C. violascens in shell selection (Sallam et al, 2008;Bundhitwongrut et al, 2015).…”

“…Hermits were categorized into 0.5-mm CSL size classes to facilitate the comparison in shell use as a function of hermit crab size according to Nakasone (2001) and Bundhitwongrut et al (2014). Regression analysis was utilized to determine relationships between quantitative characters of hermit crabs and occupied shells using the power function equation (Y=a.X b ) (Sallam et al, 2008;Bundhitwongrut et al, 2015). The critical significance level adopted in all statistical tests was p < 0.05.…”

“…The different proportions of occupied shell species may infer active behavior of C. violascens in shell selection (Sallam et al, 2008;Bundhitwongrut et al, 2015). This probably means C. violascens try to find the most appropriate shells available for them.…”

“…Coenobita violascens was collected three days per month. The hermit crabs were collected by hand by the same person (the author) at low tide from the supralittoral area in the early morning (Sallam et al, 2008). The sampling technique used in this study was multiple quadrat sampling (Barnes, 1999).…”