Abstract

Crepidula coquimbensis is a protandric marine gastropod with direct development and restricted mobility, which only inhabits inside of empty shells of other marine gastropods cohabiting with hermit crabs of the genus Pagurus. In this study, we report potential dispersal mechanisms of C. coquimbensis and the effect on its population genetic distance and structure, using the gene COI, in three localities of northern Chile. The results suggested that C. coquimbensis shows high levels of genetic differentiation at local scale, and the association with P. edwardsi would be its only one mechanism of dispersal.