Shell occupation by the land hermit crab Coenobita violascens (Anomura, Coenobitidae) from Phuket Island, Thailand

Abstract Shell occupation by the land hermit crab Coenobita violascens Heller, 1862 was investigated from January 2011 to March 2012 on Phuket Island in the Andaman Coast of Thailand. The samples of C. violascens were collected monthly using multiple quadrat sampling. Twenty shell species from 11 families were found occupying by C. violascens, which were mainly marine gastropods (90%). The three most common occupied shell species were Chicoreus brunneus (Link, 1807) (21.3% of hermits), followed by Filifusus filamentosus (Röding, 1798) (14.9%) and Laevistrombus canarium (Linnaeus, 1758) (14.9%...