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Coral reefs are considered the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet (Levinton 1982). Symbiotic interactions between phylogenetically unrelated organisms play a very important role in coral reef ecology (Carrera-Parra and Vargas-Herna´ ndez 1997), and stony corals host many organisms that live on their surface or within their skeletons (Abelson et al. 1991). Crabs are commonly associated with corals and may be totally dependent on coral for protection against predators, or as a food source either from coral mucus or trapped particulate material (Patton 1974; Castro 1976; Rinkevich et al. 1991). Cryptochiridae, or gall crabs as they are commonly known, are obligate symbionts of stony corals. These crabs can modify coral morphology by affecting growth (Simon-Blecher and Achituv 1997; Simon-Blecher et al. 1999). This, in turn, can alter local water flux and thus the movement of suspended particulate food (Abelson et al. 1991). Two forms of growth modification have been observed: depressions, called ''pits,'' in massive corals, and flattened spheres, called ''galls,'' made of two valves in branching corals. These two forms of coral growth modification are associated with the alimentary mechanisms of the crabs. Those feeders that form pits obtain food from material deposited in the depression while those that form galls are suspension feeders (Abelson et al. 1991). Inglés

In this note we present ecological and ethological data for Troglocarcinus corallicola Verrill, one of the two known species of gall crabs in the Mexican Atlantic which lives in symbiosis with the host stony coral, Manicina areolata Linnaeus. Troglocarcinus corallicola occurs throughout the Atlantic and is the most widely distributed of the Atlantic cryptochirids. In the western Atlantic, this species has been recorded in Bermuda and localities from southeastern Florida to Brazil. In the Gulf of Mexico it has been previously found in Barra del Tordo, Tamaulipas, and in the Veracruz Reef System, Veracruz. The species has been reported as a symbiont of several species of stony corals, including M. areolata (Kropp and Manning 1987). Inglés

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