Atlantic Blue Crab
Callinectes sapidus
White-spotted Hermit Crab
Dardanus megistos
About
This is one of the largest hermit crabs you can meet on a reef, dragging a borrowed shell many times its own age. It can reach about 20 cm in body length.
Also known as: spotted hermit crab
- Length
- 20 cm
- Depth
- up to 50 m
How to tell it apart
Many hermit crabs borrow similar shells, but this one stands out by its bright red, hairy body dotted with black-ringed white eyespots and its very long white antennae.
Appearance
The body is bright red and covered in long, coarse, dark red hairs. Small white eyespots ringed in black sit on the body, and the eyes themselves are stalked, greenish brown, with reddish stalks marked by a white spot at the base. It has a pair of long white antennae, a shorter second pair, and ten legs in total, with the first pair carrying pincers - the left one noticeably larger than the right. Like all hermit crabs, it lives inside a borrowed gastropod shell, so only the front part of the body and the first three pairs of legs are visible.
Habitat
It is found across the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to the South China Sea, Australia, and Hawaii, living on coral reefs, in lagoons, on rocky platforms, and over sand and seagrass beds, from the shoreline down to about 50 m.
Behaviour
It is an opportunistic feeder, eating small invertebrates such as worms and molluscs, and is also known to feed on sea cucumbers. Sexes are separate, and females carry their eggs on the abdomen. Before mating, pairs perform a courtship display. Individuals can live for decades.
Did you know?
It may live for up to 30 years, a long lifespan for a hermit crab.
Log it in Into the Blue
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