Dear colleagues:

Hello!  By way of introduction, I am a graduate student at Florida State
University in Tallahassee.  My research revolves around the evolution and
ecology of commensalism, and I'm using pea crabs (Brachyura:
Pinnotheridae) as a model system. Many species of pea crabs are molluscan
symbionts, and I write to you with the hope that you might be able to help
me collect pea crab specimens for gene sequencing and phylogenetic
analysis.

Several pea crab species in the genera Fabia and Pinnixa are associated
with bivalves, gastropods, or limpets in the Pacific, typically between
Alaska and the Gulf of California.  Others are symbionts of molluscs in
the subtropical Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.  It is my hope that some of
you will be familiar with these crabs, even simply as "incidental"
symbionts of the molluscan taxa with which you work.

If you would be willing to collect crabs, or know of someone who might,
please contact me.  I've included a complete list of "wanted" taxa below,
with hosts and species ranges where known.  I've included the genera
Dissodactylus and Clypeasterophilus as well, even though they are
echinoderm symbionts; please feel free to distribute this list to
colleagues who work with echinoderms!

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!  Ideally, collected
specimens should be 'fixed' in 70-100% ethanol (formaldehyde makes genetic
work impossible).  I would be happy to reimburse you for the cost of
materials and shipping, and I would be more than willing to 'trade' local
molluscan specimens from the northern Gulf of Mexico.  Good advice -
particularly about other researchers who might be able to help me - would
also be most welcome!

With best regards,

Greg Farley
Department of Biological Science
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL  32301
(850) 644-9840
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genus/species
        host organism
        range

Clypeasterophilus juvenilis
        ?
        Bahamas, Florida (Atlantic and Gulf), Yucatan peninsula
Clypeasterophilus rugatus
        ?
        Dominica, West Indies; Cuba, Florida
Clypeasterophilus ususfructus
        ?
        Gulf of CA to Ecuador

Dissodactylus borradailei
        fine white sand
        SE & SW Florida, Jamaica
Dissodactylus glasselli
        ECHINODERMS:  Mellita longifissa
        Chiapas, Mexico to El Salvador
Dissodactylus latus
        ?
        West Florida to Brazil
Dissodactylus lockingtoni
        ECHINODERMS:  Mellita longifissa; Encope emarginata, E. grandis, E.
                californica
        Gulf of CA, Sonora, Mexico
Dissodactylus nitidus
        ECHINODERMS:  E. grandis, E. californica
        Mexico to El Salvador
Dissodactylus primitivus
        ?
        Tortugas, Florida
Dissodactylus schmitti
        ?
        White Friars, Mexico
Dissodactylus xantusi
        ECHINODERMS:  Mellita longifissa, Encope spp.
        Gulf of CA to Panama


Fabia byssomiae
        BIVALVES:  Byssomia distorta, Saxicava distorta, S. arctica
        W. Florida, NW Cuba
Fabia canfieldi
        LIMPETS:  Lucapina crenulata
        Monterey, CA
Fabia carvachoi
        ?
        Gulf of California
Fabia concharum
        BIVALVES:  Pachydesma, Tapes, Pholas, Mya, Donax, Modiola
        Santa Monica to San Diego, CA
Fabia emiliai
        ?
        SW Atlantic, Brazil
Fabia felderi
        ?
        Florida
Fabia granti
        GASTROPODS: Crucibulum, Acmaea, Crepidula
        Gulf of California
Fabia malaguena
        ?
        Colombia
Fabia obtusidentata
        ?
        China
Fabia subquadrata
        BIVALVES:  Mytilus, Tapes, Mya, Modiolus, Cardita
        Alaska to San Diego
Fabia tellinae
        BIVALVES:  tellins
        NW Florida to Alabama


Pinnixa barnharti
        HOLOTHURIANS:  Liosoma, Molpadia arenicola, Caudina, Holothuria
        Puget Sound to Mexico
Pinnixa cylindrica
        Arenicola cristata
        MA to SC, W and NW Florida
Pinnixa eburna
        POLYCHAETES:  Arenicola pusilla, A. claparedii
        WA to British Columbia
Pinnixa faba
        BIVALVES:  Lutraria, Tresus, Schizothaerus, Cardium
        AK to Newport Bay, CA
Pinnixa franciscana
        SHRIMP:  Callianassa, Upogebia; also Urechis caupo, Amphitrite
        San Francisco to Newport, CA
Pinnixa littoralis
        BIVALVES:  Mya, Saxidomus, Tapes
        AK to San Diego, CA
Pinnixa longipes
        POLYCHAETES:  Pectinaria, Pista, Clymarella, Urechis
        CA
Pinnixa rapax
        ?
        Argentina, Brazil
Pinnixa sayana
        free-living on sand, also occasionally with Arenicola
        MA to NC; W. Florida, Louisiana
Pinnixa schmitti
        BIVALVES:  Macoma secta, POLYCHAETES: Pista, Amphitrite; SHRIMP:
                Upogebia;also Echiura
        CA to Mazatlan, Mexico
Pinnixa tubicola
        POLYCHAETES:  Serpulidae, Amphitrite, Terebellidae
        AK to San Diego, CA
Pinnixa tumida
        HOLOTHURIANS:  (Para)Caudina chilensis
        China, Japan