Pylochelidae

Description

Unlike other hermit crabs, pylochelid hermit crabs are not markedly asymmetrical, with a straight body and equal numbers of appendages on both sides. This characteristic, together with the partial calcification of the abdomen (which is soft in other hermit crabs) led Edward J. Miers, when describing the first species, to consider it to represent a transition between hermit crabs and "Macrura" (long-tailed decapods, such as lobsters and shrimp). Correspondingly, pylochelid hermit crabs do not usually inhabit gastropod shells, but instead withdraw into decayed pieces of wood, stones, tusk shells (especially Dentaliidae), living sponges, pieces of bamboo or mangroves. Their claws are often adapted to form an operculum, which closes off the entrance to their home.

Distribution

Although the family as a whole has a global distribution, diversity is concentrated in the Indo-Pacific, with only four species being found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea (Cheiroplatea scutata, Pylocheles agassizii, Bathycheles cubensis and Mixtopagurus paradoxus). Pylochelid hermit crabs inhabit a great range in water depths, from 100 to, with most living between 200 and deep.

Genera

The family contains 48 species in 12 genera:

• Bathycheles – six species
• Cancellocheles – one species
• Cheiroplatea – six species
• †Cretatrizocheles – one species
• Forestocheles – one species
• †Mesoparapylocheles - six species
• Mixtopagurus – one species
• Parapylocheles - one species
• Pomatocheles – three species
• Pylocheles – two species
• Trizocheles – eighteen species
• Xylocheles – two species

References

References

1. {{ITIS
2. (October 2, 2002). "Pylochelidae Bate, 1888". [[Australian Museum]].
3. (2009). "A new classification for the Pylochelidae (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguroidea) and descriptions of new taxa". [[Raffles Bulletin of Zoology]].
4. Rafael Lemaitre. (2009). "Phylogenetic relationships within the Pylochelidae (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguroidea): A cladistic analysis based on morphological characters". [[Zootaxa]].
5. Jacques Forest. (1987). "Ethology and Distribution of Pylochelidae (Crustacea Decapoda Coenobitoidea)". [[Bulletin of Marine Science]].
6. (September 9, 2009). "Family PYLOCHELIDAE Bate, 1888". [[Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts]].
7. Patsy A. McLaughlin. (2010). "Annotated checklist of anomuran decapod crustaceans of the world (exclusive of the Kiwaoidea and families Chirostylidae and Galatheidae of the Galatheoidea) Part I – Lithodoidea, Lomisoidea and Paguroidea". The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.
8. René H.B. Fraaije. (2012). "New species, genera and a family of hermit crabs (Crustacea, Anomura, Paguroidea) from a mid-Cretaceous reef of Navarra, northern Spain". [[Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie]].