Abstract
BackgroundIn 2016, the range of the hermit crab Clibanarius erythropus expanded to South West Britain for the second time. C. erythropus primarily lives in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast of Europe from the Bay of Biscay to Morocco. The species has now been recorded on both the north and south coast of the South West peninsula of the UK from Newtrain Bay, on the north coast of Cornwall, to Wembury, on the south coast of Devon. It is unknown if the crab’s reappearance in the UK has been caused by a one-off colonisation event or by a continued influx of larvae.ResultsThe population in the UK is made up of individual within a narrow size bracket, indicating a single colonisation event took place, and that the population is an ageing one. However, we also report the highest latitude recording of a gravid individual for the species.ConclusionA lack of gravid individuals was suggested to be why the species was unable to sustain its presence in the UK following a previous colonisation in 1960. This discovery hints that rising water temperatures may allow C. erythropus and other warm-water species to expand and sustain themselves in the UK. We also found crossover in shell utilisation between C. erythropus and the native hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus, suggesting that competition might occur between the two species.
Highlights
In 2016, the range of the hermit crab Clibanarius erythropus expanded to South West Britain for the second time
We suggest that the reappearance of C. erythropus on UK coasts could be an important indicator of how the ranges of other warm-water species could expand to the UK over time as climate changes
We explored the shell species that C. erythropus uses in the UK, in order to make predictions as to how the species could interact with the native UK fauna; mainly the UK’s only abundant intertidal hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus, through shell competition
Summary
In 2016, the range of the hermit crab Clibanarius erythropus expanded to South West Britain for the second time. The species has been recorded on both the north and south coast of the South West peninsula of the UK from Newtrain Bay, on the north coast of Cornwall, to Wembury, on the south coast of Devon It is unknown if the crab’s reappearance in the UK has been caused by a one-off colonisation event or by a continued influx of larvae. It has been predicted that C. erythropus would return to the southwest of the UK as the water temperatures rose (Hawkins et al 2008; Southward et al 1995) and, in March 2016, C. erythropus was rediscovered in Cornwall at Castle beach (50°8′52′′N, 5°3′19′′W) This recording was followed by sightings at multiple locations along both the north and south coast. As recordings of C. erythropus appeared simultaneously across the coast, it is more likely that its planktonic larvae drifted to the UK from further south
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