Phylogeny and phylogeography of the land hermit crab Coenobita purpureus (Decapoda: Anomura: Coenobitidae) in the Northwestern Pacific Region

Abstract

Hermit crabs of the family Coenobitidae comprise the land hermit crabs, with 16 Coenobita species, and the coconut crab Birgus latro. They are terrestrial but spend their marine life as planktonic larvae. Some coenobitid crabs are widely distributed in the Indo‐West Pacific region, and some species occupy narrower ranges. To improve our knowledge of coenobitid crab speciation and geographical distribution patterns, we examined the phylogenetic relationship between Coenobita purpureus, which has a narrow distribution in the Northwestern Pacific, and its more widely distributed coenobitids including B. latro, Coenobita brevimanus, Coenobita cavipes, Coenobita perlatus, Coenobita rugosus and Coenobita violascens based on the mtDNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and 16S rDNA genes. We also assessed the phylogeography of Co. purpureus populations based on the COI gene. Our phylogenetic and phylogeographical analyses revealed that (i) Co. purpureus clustered with Co. rugosus and (ii) the Co. purpureus population in the Ogasawara Islands was genetically distinct from those in other regions, which showed genetic panmixia. It has been hypothesized that Co. purpureus evolved in the isolated landmasses of the Ryukyu region during the Pliocene, and that its population expanded and colonized the Ogasawara Islands in the late Pleistocene. Further phylogeographical studies on Coenobita species with relatively narrow distributions coupled with characterization of their phylogenetic relationships with widely distributed congeners will advance our knowledge of the speciation and geographical distribution history of coenobitid crabs.

Thermal adaptations of embryos of six terrestrial hermit crab species

“…Although significant interspecific differences were found in the egg sizes of the 6 coenobitids, as previously shown for C. cavipes, C. purpureus and C. rugosus by Nakasone (2001), egg size did not affect embryonic development, such as the LTT and ECT values. Hamasaki et al (2016) examined the phylogenetic relationships among 7 coenobitid species based on 16S rDNA se quences. They found that B. latro branched off from the outer diogenids (sister marine hermit crabs) first, followed by C. brevimanus, and that the other species comprised 3 clusters: (1) C. cavipes and C. perlatus H. Milne-Edwards, 1837, (2) C. violascens, and (3) C. rugosus and C. purpureus.…”

“…This crab is also found on the Pacific coasts of mainland Japan (< 35° N) (Hamasaki et al 2016). Additionally, several widely distributed coenobitids, including Coenobita brevimanus Dana, 1852, C. cavipes Stimpson, 1858, C. rugosus H. Milne-Edwards, 1837, C. violascens Heller, 1862 occur in the southern oceanic islands, Japan (Nakasone 1988, 2001, Hamasaki et al 2016.…”

“…Additionally, several widely distributed coenobitids, including Coenobita brevimanus Dana, 1852, C. cavipes Stimpson, 1858, C. rugosus H. Milne-Edwards, 1837, C. violascens Heller, 1862 occur in the southern oceanic islands, Japan (Nakasone 1988, 2001, Hamasaki et al 2016. Hamasaki et al (2016) examined the phylogenetic relationships between C. purpureus and its widely distributed congeners based on partial 16S mitochondrial rDNA sequences. Their phylogenetic tree demonstrated that C. purpureus clustered with C. rugosus.…”

Novel gene rearrangement in the mitochondrial genome of Coenobita brevimanus (Anomura: Coenobitidae) and phylogenetic implications for Anomura

“…Terrestrial hermit crabs belong to the family Coenobitidae of Anomura, which includes only two genera: the land hermit crab genus Coenobita, with 16 species, and the coconut crab genus Birgus, with only one species, B. latro [ 21]. Nevertheless, it has been indicated that among the 16 Coenobita species, C. carnescens could be in fact the juvenile form of C. perlatus, and that C. olivieri is only a variety of C. spinosus [ 22,23]. It has been proved that complete mitogenome is common used for species identification, especially for the controversial classifications which possess similar morphology.…”

Genetic population structure of the fiddler crab <i>Austruca lactea</i> (De Haan, 1835) based on mitochondrial DNA control region sequences

“…1). While the current is sufficiently powerful to potentially impact larval gene flow in some marine organisms (Kawabe, 1986;Sugimoto & Kobayashi, 1988;Tomita et al, 2016;Abdullah et al, 2017;Hamasaki et al, 2017), it has also been demonstrated to act as a potential genetic barrier to dispersal in other marine species (Aoki et al, 2008a;Iwamoto et al, 2012;Imai et al, 2013;Yamakawa & Imai, 2014;Iwamoto et al, 2015). Results here at least suggest that the Kuroshio Current potentially limits larval dispersal by fiddler crabs between the Seto Inland Sea and Kyushu regions.…”