DISTRIBUTION AND BIOLOGICAL DATA ON THE HERMIT CRABS (DECAPODA: ANOMURA) OF THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN COLLECTED BY THE EXPEDITION INVEMAR-MACROFAUNA II

Abstract

During the expedition INVEMAR-Macrofauna II, made in 2001 throughout the continental shelf and upper continental slope of the Colombian Caribbean coast, between 20 and 500 m depth, 22 species of hermit crabs distributed in one superfamily and four families, were collected. Within the superfamily Paguroidea, the family Paguridae was the most abundant and diverse with 13 species, six species belong to family Diogenidae; the Parapaguridae was represented by two species and one species of the genus Trizocheles of the family Pylochelidae represents the !rst report of this family from this coast. In addition, !ve undetermined species of the genera Paguristes, Enneobranchus, and Iridopagurus, were also collected. Based on the collected material, the bathymetric distributions reveal species aggregation in two depth ranges (20 - 150 m and 300 - 500 m). The upper strata species show a geographic distribution pattern, seemingly related to the in"uence of the Magdalena river; by contrast, the species from the deeper range do not reveal any particular distribution pattern.