I hope to look into the parasitology of this species but so far have only come across a parasitic Drosophilid which has been noticed to lay eggs around the secondary antennae of this crab. Are any researchers present who have an interest in this species and know a little more information?
I ust checked this out and could only get 27 references and none dealing with parasites of this red island crab.( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Gecarcoidea+natalis )
also, chk the pdf link abt the Lissocephala powelli ( drosophilid fly) availabe as pdf.
http://lntreasures.com/christmas.html
But if u r interested in general drosophilid, chk this out :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=(drosophilid)%20NOT%20drosophila
Thank you very much for your input, I have been compiling papers on this species and so far the only strong link to parasitology is the Drosophilid fly. However much more research is present on the Yellow Crazy Ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) which has invaded Christmas Island. I have studied parasite introduction previously and the pathogens affecting A. gracilipes may have the potential to pass to G. natalis. A fungus may be one such pathogen (http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/10701/). However I need to continue reading the literature before I can say more. Literature on A. gracilipes suggests that it is killing off a large proportion of the land crab population but is this completely due to competition or are pathogens involved? As far as I can tell no particular study has been performed to discover the answer. Nor has any study looked at the pathogen profile of this species which may hold interesting data on parasite aquisition from a formerly marine organism transfering to a new forest habitat. (other than the fly described in 1973 by Hampton and Wheeler)
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