The purpose of this study was to ascertain shell occupation patterns by the hermit crab; Diogenes alias found inhabiting the subtidal region of Mumbai, northwest coast of India. A total of 385 samples of D. alias, occupying different molluscan shells, were collected bi-weekly from trawling operations off Mumbai. The species was found to occupy the shells of 12 gastropods species, of which, the most commonly occupied shells were that of Tibia curta (38.7 %) followed by Indothais lacera (36.37 %) while the shells of Rapana rapiformis and Turris spp. were least occupied with 0.26 %. The diversity of shells occupied by male was higher than female and least in ovigerous females. A high correlation was found between the internal volume of shell and weight of hermit crab occupying it. The present study concluded that the shell architecture has influence on the shell occupation by hermit crabs.

中文翻译：

---

寄居蟹Diogenes别名McLaughlin＆Holthuis的贝壳占领模式，2001（Diogenidae）来自印度孟买

这项研究的目的是确定寄居蟹对贝壳的占领方式。在印度西北海岸的孟买潮下地区发现了第2纪别名。从孟买附近的拖网作业每两周收集总共385个别名为D.alias的样品，它们分别占据不同的软体动物壳。发现该物种占据了12种腹足动物的壳，其中最常见的壳是胫骨（38.7％），其次是Indothais lacera（36.37％），而Rapana rapiformis和Turris的壳spp。居住率最低，为0.26％。雄性所占据的壳的多样性高于雌性，而在有卵的雌性中则最少。发现壳的内部体积与寄居蟹的寄居蟹重量之间存在高度相关性。本研究的结论是，壳的结构对寄居蟹的壳占领有影响。