A government-funded study found that more than 90 percent of hermit crabs on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) wore mollusk shells, not plastic debris, in a positive sign for the health of the atoll’s marine environment.
The National Academy of Marine Research on Friday said it conducted the study using pit traps in March, during the atoll’s dry season, and in July last year, during its wet season.
The study examined 615 captured specimens and identified three hermit crab species on the atoll: Coenobita rugosus, Coenobita brevimanus and Coenobita perlatus, it said.
Photo courtesy of the National Academy of Marine Research
An overwhelming majority of the crabs inhabited mollusk shells despite the global mollusk shell scarcity linked to a decline in their populations, it said.
The academy said that 81 percent of C rugosus on the atoll wore shells of Turbinidae, while 13 percent wore shells of other mollusk families, and 6 percent wore the shells of giant African snails.
None of the 600 C rugosus wore trash, it said.
Photo courtesy of the National Academy of Marine Research
Hermit crabs wear mollusk shells as a form of defensive armor against predators and the tides, using their hooked tails to securely attach to the shells they inhabit, it said.
Some crabs lacking mollusk shells wear sea trash, it said.
Giant African snail shells, another commonly used substitute for mollusk shells, possess insufficient mass to anchor female hermit crabs, it said.
Taiwanese researchers in 2012 and 2020 found that respectively 94 percent and 73 percent of the hermit crabs on the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) wore giant African snail shells, it said.
As of last year, individual crabs from 10 out of the world’s 17 hermit crab species were found to wear trash in lieu of mollusk shells, it said.
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