Two new species of hermit crabs are described from the southern Caribbean, Pylopagurus pattiae, living in empty polychaete tubes, and Xylopagurus tayrona, living in pieces of wood. Xylopagurus tayrona is the second known species of Xylopagurus A. Milne Edwards, 1880, in the western Atlantic, and the third of the genus. Both species are fully illustrated. During studies of the marine environments of the Caribbean coast of Colombia, several interesting hermit crab specimens were collected in the vicinity of Santa Marta. Thirty-seven of these