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Observation of intersexuality in land hermit crabs (Anomura: Coenobitidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2007

Oleg Gusev  and
Yaroslav Zabotin
Oleg Gusev
Affiliation:
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Kazan State University, 17 Kremlevskaya str., 420008, Kazan, Russia Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima, 700-8530, Okayama, Japan
Yaroslav Zabotin
Affiliation:
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Kazan State University, 17 Kremlevskaya str., 420008, Kazan, Russia
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Abstract

We report here the first observation of intersexuality in a land hermit crab (Coenobitidae). Three species of land hermit crabs from Okinawa were investigated. In the population of the terrestrial hermit crab Coenobita rugosus two per cent of males were found to be intersex. Besides the true male gonopores on the coxae of the 5th pair of pereopods, they had additional openings on the coxae of the 3rd pair of pereopods. Both specimens examined had a normally developed male reproductive system. In the populations of two other species studied, C. brevimanus and C. purpureus, however, no intersex individuals have been found. Examples of intersexuality in decapod crustaceans are discussed and putative explanations of this phenomenon in land hermit crabs are proposed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 87 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 533 - 536
Copyright
2007 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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