WILLIAMS, J. D.**; MCDERMOTT, J. J.; BOYKO, C. B.; Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY; Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: A world-wide review of hermit crab parasites

Although the symbiotic relationships between commensal and mutualistic species associated with hermit crabs have been reviewed and studied in some detail, hermit crabs also host a variety of parasites that are generally poorly known. We present a preliminary review of the protozoan, fungal, and metazoan parasites associated with paguroids worldwide. Our analysis shows that approximately 115 parasite species, representing 8 phyla, are found with over 100 hermit crab hosts. Endoparasites, ectoparasites, mesoparasites, and parasitoids are harbored by hermit crabs. The phylum Arthropoda contains two major groups of hermit crab parasites, the mesoparasitic barnacles (Rhizocephala) and ectoparasitic isopods (Bopyridae) that are the most abundant groups of hermit crab parasites with 19 and 74 taxa, respectively. Parasitic isopods are approximately evenly split between species that inhabit the branchial chamber (36 taxa) and those that attach to the abdomen (38 taxa) of hosts. While rhizocephalans and bopyrids utilize hermit crabs as their definitive hosts, species in other groups (e.g., Cestoda, Trematoda, Acanthocephala, and Nematoda) infect hermit crabs as intermediate hosts. The best-studied hermit crabs are those from Europe (e.g., Pagurus bernhardus, P. cuanensis, P. prideauxi) that harbor 7-10 different parasites along their ranges. Individual hermit crabs from all other geographic regions are known to harbor 5 or less parasites; however, this disparity in number of parasites per host may reflect limited sampling. The biology and life-history of selected parasites of hermit crabs will be explored, including information based on recent investigations of bopyrids associated with hermit crab hosts from the Indo-Pacific.