Abstract

Hermit crabs are cosmopolitan anomuran decapods, which occupy especially gastropod mollusk shells. Their shell occupancy pattern has been described in several regions worldwide, yet it is still poorly studied in the Amazon coast. The aim of this paper was to study the pattern of gastropod shell occupations by hermit crab Clibanarius vittatus (Bosc, 1802) according to their sex. Crab and shell morphometric measures were taken, crab sex was determined for comparative analyses of shell occupancy. Samplings were conducted on Ajuruteua Beach, Braganca , Para , in March and October 2015. A total of 729 hermit crabs of the Clibanarius vittatus species were found in seven gastropod shells: Stramonita haemastoma , S. trinitatensis , Coralliophila caribaea , S. mariae , Latiaxis mansfieldi , Natica livida , and N. marochiensis . Male were the largest, followed by ovigerous females and intersexed individuals, and occupied the largest shells. Rainy season seems to affect hermit crab reproduction in the northeastern region of the state of Para . Regardless of sex, hermit crabs showed preference for using shells of the species S. haemastom a (53.22%) and S. trinitatensi s (43.07%). These shells, in addition to the high local availability, have attributes that benefit C. vittatus reproduction and survival. Furthermore, males seem to select larger shells because they adjust to a larger body size and ovigerous females select them for egg protection. Keywords: Caete estuary; conch; metabiosis; hermit crab; proto-cooperation.

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