Abstract
Individuals of Pagurus criniticornis in a free-choice situation were experimentally tested under different laboratory conditions. In order to assess the effect of recently occupied shells on the size- and type-preference by hermit crabs, individuals were held for 30 days under one of the following two conditions: (1) excess of shells and (2) absence of shells. The crabs were then allowed to select shells from a wide array of empty gastropod shells of the two most-occupied species, as observed previously in the field: Cerithium atratum and Morula nodulosa. Preferred shell type (species) and size (shell aperture width and length) were correlated with hermit-crab size. The crabs showed a strong (100%) preference for C. atratum shells, demonstrating that recent and past experience did not influence either shell-type or shell-size preferences in this pagurid.
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