الفهرس 
ContentsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 504 |  |  |
| | | from | 504 | | |
Abstract
Hermit crabs are anomuran crustaceans. However, they basically differ than the other anomurans by the possession of a naked, un-segmented, and usually twisted abdomen that is typically protected from predation, desiccation and mechanical shocks by an empty gastropod shell. Hermit crabs inhabit a wide range of habitats from the supratidal to deep ocean canyons. In their habitats, hermit crabs use different kinds of substrates as microhabitats such as sand, mud, rocks, boulders, cobbles, algal turf and seagrass meadows.
Those crabs represent a significant part of benthic community, and they have many aspects of ecological importance. However, to the best of the present author knowledge, in comparison to the number of the studies performed on them worldwide, very little number of studies has been performed on them in the Egyptian coasts of the Red Sea, including the coasts of the Aqaba and the Suez Gulfs. So, the present work was performed to achieve the following aims:
1- Determine the horizontal distribution of the hermit crab species recorded from the intertidal water in different sites along the Egyptian coasts of the Suez and the Aqaba Gulfs through performing a horizontal survey in that area.
2- Identify the hermit crab species recorded in the present study.
3- Make a brief diagnosis for some of the hermit crab species recorded in the present study.
4- Propose an identification key to the hermit crab species recorded in the present study.
5- Examine the effects of six ecological factors on the abundance, the distribution and the diversity of the hermit crab species recorded from four main investigated sites along the study area by performing a seasonal sampling.
6- Study the microhabitats selection and its effect on the abundance, the distribution and the diversity of the recorded hermit crab species during both the horizontal survey and the seasonal sampling.
7- Shed light on some morphological aspects of intersexuality along with sexual dimorphism in the population of the hermit crab Calcinus latens (Randall, 1840).
8- Investigate the relative growth of some body and chelae dimensions, along with heterochely, based on chelar propodi lengths, in the hermit crab Calcinus latens (Randall, 1840).