Diogenes heteropsammicola is a species of hermit crab discovered during samplings between 2012 and 2016 in the shallow waters of the Japanese Amami Islands.

[1] This hermit crab species is unique due to the discovery that they use living, growing coral as a shell.

They live in the inside of the coral and can be distinguished from other types of hermits by their thin chelipeds and leg shape.

[citation needed] Heteropsammia and Heterocyathus are the two solitary corals that this hermit species has been observed as occupying.

[1] The discoverers of this species are Momoko Igawa and Makoto Kato of Kyoto University, Japan.