Overview
- The peer-reviewed study published Aug. 11, 2026, in Ecology and led by Kenji Suetsugu of Kobe University found the land hermit crab Coenobita brevimanus is the main disperser of Balanophora fungosa at the studied island near Okinawa.
- Researchers first used fine nets that allowed ants but blocked larger animals and saw dispersal stop, then recorded time-lapse footage that directly captured hermit crabs and cockroaches visiting ripe B. fungosa plants.
- Hermit crabs remove fruits with their pincers, carry fruit pieces on their bodies, and ingest fruit so that some tiny seeds survive gut passage and are later excreted as viable seeds.
- Crab movements can move seeds substantially farther than passive fall, with observed and estimated travel distances up to about 100 meters, a scale that can affect where parasitic plants establish on shaded forest floors.
- The results underline that overlooked invertebrates can play key roles in seed dispersal on islands and in fragmented or windless habitats, which may change models of plant spread and inform local conservation planning.