Long-claw Hermit Crab

Pagurus longicarpus

Summary 7

Pagurus longicarpus, the long-clawed hermit crab, is a small (up to 1⁄2 in or 1.27 cm) common subtidal decapod ranging out to 150 ft (46 m) deep found living in shells from periwinkles, oyster drills, and eastern mud snails. It is found from Nova Scotia to Florida and Texas.

Description 8

Pagurus longicarpus, the long-armed hermit crab, is a small western Atlantic hermit crab. It belongs to the genus Pagurus, all members of which have unequal chelipeds (claws) in which the right is substantially larger than the left. In the case of P. longicarpus, the oversized claw is long and slender and approximately cylindrical in shape. Body color is highly variable, ranging from beige to off-white to greenish-grey to brown (Voss 1983, Rupert and Fox 1988).Like all hermits, P. longicarpus protects its soft, assymetrical abdomen by tucking it into and tightly curling it around the columella of the shell from a dead gastropod (Barnes 1987).

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Mike Hansen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/37626114@N03/3494823580
  2. (c) cyric, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by cyric
  3. (c) Adriana Radulovici, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.boldsystems.org/archive/image.php?id=bold.org/300711
  4. (c) Adriana Radulovici, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.boldsystems.org/pics/_w300/WWGSL/L190AR1-02+1223927544.jpg
  5. (c) Banco de imágenes del CNICE - MEC, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Pagurus_longicarpus.jpg
  6. (c) Mike Hansen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/3494823580_1cc4e8666b.jpg
  7. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus_longicarpus
  8. (c) Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/11526568

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