Diogenes heteropsammicola
| Diogenes heteropsammicola | |
|---|---|
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| A, an individual in an aquarium, carrying the coral. B, an individual removed from its host coral. Scale bar: 1 mm. | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
| Infraorder: | Anomura |
| Family: | Diogenidae |
| Genus: | Diogenes |
| Species: | D. heteropsammicola
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| Binomial name | |
| Diogenes heteropsammicola Igawa & Kato 2017[1]
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Diogenes heteropsammicola is a species of hermit crab discovered during samplings between 2012 and 2016 in the shallow waters of the Japanese Amami Islands. This D. heteropsammicola is strongly associated with the walking corals.[1] This hermit crab species is unique due to the discovery that they use living, growing coral as a shell. Crustaceans of this type commonly replace their shell as the organism grows in size, but D. heteropsammicola are the first of their kind to use solitary corals as a shell form. Heteropsammia and Heterocyathus are the two solitary corals that this hermit species has been observed as occupying. These two coral species are also used as a home by symbiotic sipunculans of the genus Aspidosiphon, which normally occupy the corals that the crabs were found inhabiting.[1]
The discoverers of this species are Momoko Igawa and Makoto Kato of Kyoto University, Japan.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d Igawa M, Kato M (September 2017). "A new species of hermit crab, Diogenes heteropsammicola (Crustacea, Decapoda, Anomura, Diogenidae), replaces a mutualistic sipunculan in a walking coral symbiosis". PLOS ONE. 12 (9): e0184311. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1284311I. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0184311. PMC 5606932. PMID 28931020.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
External links
Media related to Diogenes heteropsammicola at Wikimedia Commons
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