Xenophora cerea (Reeve, 1845)
42.6mm

Xenophora cerea is rarely seen in the Marshalls. At Kwajalein, we have seen one living and at least three shells occupied by hermit crabs. The living animal was on top of a slab of dead table Acropora lying on the bottom at a depth of about 20m. The three crabbed shells were on lagoon sand spits in about 7 to 8m. All of these shells had very dark undersides and apertures, and most of the objects they had incorporated into their shells were small rocks. At Enewetak Atoll, three living animals were inadvertently brought up in a bag full of algae and rubble brought up from about 60m on the midlagoon bottom. These shells had lighter colored apertures and had incorporated along with rocks several empty or broken shells of Canarium erythrinum. It is possible the two carrier shells are not the same species. The first four photos show the Kwajalein living specimen.

The next two photos show one of the Enewetak specimens.

Created 1 May 2017

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