Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Many hermit crab species can form large aggregations, sometimes numbering thousands of individuals (e.g., Gherardi and Vannini 1992). Research suggests that such clustering behavior can reduce predation risk and positively influence feeding, reproduction, and shell exchange. While clustering is well documented among lineages inhabiting terrestrial and intertidal zones, it remains poorly studied at subtidal depths where the greatest hermit crab diversity exists. The limited work that has examined this behavior across multiple habitats found clustering to be rare or entirely absent among species occupying subtidal depths (including in six Dardanus species; Barnes and Arnold 2001, but see Ramsay et al. 1997). Here, we report clustering behavior in the subtidal hermit crab species Dardanus scutellatus (H. Milne Edwards, 1848) that formed a massive aggregation of tens of thousands of individuals from 10 to 15 m depth (Fig. 1). Observations were made at approximately 0830 hrs, November 24, 2013 in the remote Surprise Atoll of Entrecasteaux Reef (New Caledonia), on a gently sloping lagoon bottom of sand-covering pavement near 18.4775°S, 163.0835°E. Though our survey was very limited (<25 min, covering approximately 250 m), we did not visually locate the end of this cluster. We also saw no obvious signs of a significant food source that might have attracted these crabs. No other benthic fauna was observed, but sea snakes swam through the area. To our knowledge, such a large subtidal aggregation has never been formally reported, although scientific divers recorded a similar event 15 December 2009 in a similar habitat on Beautemps-Beaupré Atoll (Laboute, pers. comm.). The novelty of this observation emphasizes that our knowledge of clustering behavior in hermit crabs remains incomplete.
References
Barnes D, Arnold R (2001) Ecology of subtropical hermit crabs in SW Madagascar: cluster structure and function. Mar Biol 139:463–474
Gherardi F, Vannini M (1992) Hermit crabs in a mangrove swamp: proximate and ultimate factors in the clustering of Clibanarius laevimanus. J Exp Mar Bio Ecol 168:167–187
Ramsay K, Kaiser MJ, Hughes RN (1997) A field study of intraspecific competition for food in hermit crabs (Pagurus bernhardus). Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 44:213–220
Acknowledgments
Observations occurred during the New Caledonia leg of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation’s Global Reef Expedition.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Evans, N., Gilbert, A., Andréfouët, S. et al. A massive subtidal aggregation of hermit crabs in Surprise Atoll lagoon, New Caledonia. Coral Reefs 34, 917 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-015-1298-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-015-1298-7