scholarly journals Transition from sea to land: olfactory function and constraints in the terrestrial hermit crab Coenobita clypeatus

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1742) ◽  
pp. 3510-3519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Sara Krång ◽  
Markus Knaden ◽  
Kathrin Steck ◽  
Bill S. Hansson
Keyword(s):  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Olfactory System ◽  
Response Spectrum ◽  
Opposite Polarity ◽  
Water Soluble ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Larval Stages ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus ◽  
Chemical Groups

The ability to identify chemical cues in the environment is essential to most animals. Apart from marine larval stages, anomuran land hermit crabs ( Coenobita ) have evolved different degrees of terrestriality, and thus represent an excellent opportunity to investigate adaptations of the olfactory system needed for a successful transition from aquatic to terrestrial life. Although superb processing capacities of the central olfactory system have been indicated in Coenobita and their olfactory system evidently is functional on land, virtually nothing was known about what type of odourants are detected. Here, we used electroantennogram (EAG) recordings in Coenobita clypeatus and established the olfactory response spectrum. Interestingly, different chemical groups elicited EAG responses of opposite polarity, which also appeared for Coenobita compressus and the closely related marine hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus. Furthermore, in a two-choice bioassay with C. clypeatus, we found that water vapour was critical for natural and synthetic odourants to induce attraction or repulsion. Strikingly, also the physiological response was found much greater at higher humidity in C. clypeatus , whereas no such effect appeared in the terrestrial vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster . In conclusion, our results reveal that the Coenobita olfactory system is restricted to a limited number of water-soluble odourants, and that high humidity is most critical for its function.

scholarly journals Microplastics disrupt hermit crab shell selection

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 20200030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Crump ◽  
Charlotte Mullens ◽  
Emily J. Bethell ◽  
Eoghan M. Cunningham ◽  
Gareth Arnott
Keyword(s):  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Animal Behaviour ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Crab Shell ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus

Microplastics (plastics < 5 mm) are a potential threat to marine biodiversity. However, the effects of microplastic pollution on animal behaviour and cognition are poorly understood. We used shell selection in common European hermit crabs ( Pagurus bernhardus ) as a model to test whether microplastic exposure impacts the essential survival behaviours of contacting, investigating and entering an optimal shell. We kept 64 female hermit crabs in tanks containing either polyethylene spheres ( n = 35) or no plastic ( n = 29) for 5 days. We then transferred subjects into suboptimal shells and placed them in an observation tank with an optimal alternative shell. Plastic-exposed hermit crabs showed impaired shell selection: they were less likely than controls to contact optimal shells or enter them. They also took longer to contact and enter the optimal shell. Plastic exposure did not affect time spent investigating the optimal shell. These results indicate that microplastics impair cognition (information-gathering and processing), disrupting an essential survival behaviour in hermit crabs.

Influences on movement and migration in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus

1990 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Lancaster ◽  
G.D. Wigham
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Movement Patterns ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Residence Times ◽  
South West ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus ◽  
And Migration ◽  
South West England

Dispersion in a littoral population of Pagurus bernhardus in south-west England is shown to be random, with members demonstrating no evidence of site attachment. Movement patterns within the population are shown to be asynchronous and random, and to be dictated by the quantity and quality of each individual's shell contacts. These, in turn, affect the time that individuals spend within the habitat. This implies that population dynamics and residence times are so influenced by the availability of suitable empty gastropod shells that movement and migration in hermit crabs should be regarded as resource-dependent phenomena.

The Influence of Salinity on Behaviour and Oxygen Uptake of the Hermit Crab Pagurus Bernhardus L.

1980 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Davenport ◽  
P. M. C. F. Busschots ◽  
D. F. Cawthorne
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Uptake ◽  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Littoral Zone ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Rocky Shores ◽  
Terrestrial Runoff ◽  
Salinity Levels ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus

Hermit crabs, Pagurus bernhardus L., are common inhabitants of the littoral zone where they may be found in pools and puddles on the lower and middle portions of rocky shores. Only small specimens are normally found between the tidemarks but large crabs are found sublittorally as deep as 450 m. Unlike many of the animals found at a similar level on the shore, such as mussels, barnacles and winkles, Pagurus does not penetrate estuaries to any great extent. However, the smaller animals found in the littoral zone are likely to encounter reduced salinity levels caused by rainfall and terrestrial runoff.

Use of chemical cues during shell fights in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus

Behaviour ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 143 (10) ◽  
pp. 1281-1290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Briffa ◽  
Rebecca Williams
Keyword(s):  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Gastropod Shell ◽  
Focal Animal ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus ◽  
Observation Period

AbstractChemical communication is likely to play an important role during agonistic encounters in aquatic crustaceans but the use of chemical signals is difficult to observe. An alternative approach to direct observation is to collect water that has contained fighting animals and then expose a focal animal of the same species to the cue water and monitor its behaviour. Here we investigate the possibility of the use of chemical cues during 'shell fights' in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus. Focal crabs exposed to the fighting cue spent more time withdrawn into their gastropod shell, less time on locomotion and less time searching for food than did those exposed to cues from non-fighting hermit crabs or those treated with plain sea water. At the end of the observation period we used a novel stimulus to induce a startle response in order to probe the focal crab's motivational state for this exploratory behaviour. Those exposed to the fighting cue water took longer to recover than crabs in the other groups, indicating that their motivation was lower. These findings provide clear evidence that chemical cues are a feature of these contests.

scholarly journals Ocean Acidification Amplifies the Olfactory Response to 2-Phenylethylamine: Altered Cue Reception as a Mechanistic Pathway?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Schirrmacher ◽  
Christina C. Roggatz ◽  
David M. Benoit ◽  
Jörg D. Hardege
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Mechanistic Pathway ◽  
Sea Lampreys ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus ◽  
Decreasing Ph ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWith carbon dioxide (CO2) levels rising dramatically, climate change threatens marine environments. Due to increasing CO2 concentrations in the ocean, pH levels are expected to drop by 0.4 units by the end of the century. There is an urgent need to understand the impact of ocean acidification on chemical-ecological processes. To date, the extent and mechanisms by which the decreasing ocean pH influences chemical communication are unclear. Combining behaviour assays with computational chemistry, we explore the function of the predator related cue 2-phenylethylamine (PEA) for hermit crabs (Pagurus bernhardus) in current and end-of-the-century oceanic pH. Living in intertidal environments, hermit crabs face large pH fluctuations in their current habitat in addition to climate-change related ocean acidification. We demonstrate that the dietary predator cue PEA for mammals and sea lampreys is an attractant for hermit crabs, with the potency of the cue increasing with decreasing pH levels. In order to explain this increased potency, we assess changes to PEA’s conformational and charge-related properties as one potential mechanistic pathway. Using quantum chemical calculations validated by NMR spectroscopy, we characterise the different protonation states of PEA in water. We show how protonation of PEA could affect receptor-ligand binding, using a possible model receptor for PEA (human TAAR1). Investigating potential mechanisms of pH-dependent effects on olfactory perception of PEA and the respective behavioural response, our study advances the understanding of how ocean acidification interferes with the sense of smell and thereby might impact essential ecological interactions in marine ecosystems.

Metopelloides paguri sp. nov., a new species of symbiotic stenothoid amphipod (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Stenothoidae) associated with sublittoral hermit crabs from the Russian coasts of the Sea of Japan

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3244 (1) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
IVAN MARIN ◽  
SERGEY SINELNIKOV
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Sea Of Japan ◽  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
The Sea Of Japan ◽  
Crab Species ◽  
Body Coloration ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mandibular Palp ◽  
A New Species

A new species of amphipod from the genus Metopelloides Gurjanova, 1938 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Stenothoidae) asso-ciated with two species of sublittoral hermit crab species, Pagurus pectinatus (Stimpson, 1858) and Elassochirus cavi-manus (Miers, 1879) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Paguridae), is described from the Russian coasts of the Sea of Japan. The newspecies clearly differs from the congeners by the combination of morphological features such as telson without lateralspines, an elongated mandibular palp with single apical setae, the structures of distoventral palmar margins of subchelaon gnathopods I and II in females, bright white-red body coloration. Thus, the record of Metopelloides paguri sp. nov.represents the second record of the family Stenothoidae in the association with sublittoral hermit crabs from the Sea of Japan.

Shell selection in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus

1976 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus

Coenobichnus currani (new ichnogenus and ichnospecies): Fossil trackway of a land hermit crab, early Holocene, San Salvador, Bahamas

2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 576-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally E. Walker ◽  
Steven M. Holland ◽  
Lisa Gardiner
Keyword(s):  
Hermit Crab ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Coastal Environments ◽  
Atlantic Region ◽  
Western Atlantic ◽  
San Salvador ◽  
Left And Right

Land hermit crabs (Coenobitidae) are widespread and abundant in Recent tropical and subtropical coastal environments, yet little is known about their fossil record. A walking trace, attributed to a land hermit crab, is described herein as Coenobichnus currani (new ichnogenus and ichnospecies). This trace fossil occurs in an early Holocene eolianite deposit on the island of San Salvador, Bahamas. The fossil trackway retains the distinctive right and left asymmetry and interior drag trace that are diagnostic of modern land hermit crab walking traces. The overall size, dimensions and shape of the fossil trackway are similar to those produced by the modem land hermit crab, Coenobita clypeatus, which occurs in the tropical western Atlantic region. The trackway was compared to other arthropod traces, but it was found to be distinct among the arthropod traces described from dune or other environments. The new ichnogenus Coenobichnus is proposed to accommodate the asymmetry of the trackway demarcated by left and right tracks. The new ichnospecies Coenobichnus currani is proposed to accommodate the form of the proposed Coenobichnus that has a shell drag trace.

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