Abstract
Hermit crabs occupying gastropod shells that contained some remnants of the soft parts of the snail were found in the gill net collections obtained from a sandy sea bed off Kuroi, Niigata Prefecture. They were 3 individuals of Diogenes spinifrons and 1 individual of D. edivardsii. Scrapes left on the operculum of a snail indicated that it was attacked by the crab when it was alive. Tank observations suggested that the crabs consumed the remnants as food. A possibility of dual functions of such shells as a new resident and food source is discussed.
