Preliminary observations of the clustering behaviour of the tropical hermit crab,Clibanarius laevimanus

Abstract
The habit of clustering was studied within a semilunar tide cycle in the man-grove-dwelling hermit crab Clibanarius laevimanus. Notwithstanding the stability with time of aggregation size, shape, spatial position and shell-size composition together with the relatively strong site-attachment showed by these hermits, one individual's probability of changing cluster was high. Some hypotheses are set forth to explain the adaptive meaning of this behaviour.