"It is native to the Indo-Pacific region, including the Red Sea and Hawaii. It is very similar in appearance to three other species in the same genus: ""C. tricolor"", ""C. vakovako"" and ""C. galzini"", only distinguishable by the color of its striae. The halloween hermit crab will grow on average to in length, which is fairly large in comparison to other hermit crabs. It has a noticeably flattened pure white shield, approximately long. It is a nocturnal species, and has been described as ""conspicuous"". It lives primarily in empty cone shells, mainly those of snails or tritons. Like other hermit"
"shell. If it is unable to find a suitable sponge, it may steal some from another crab, or use a substitute material; an empty bivalve mollusc shell, a bit of rag, some seaweed, leaves or rubbish. If it later finds some sponge or a more desirable camouflage than it is currently wearing, it will discard the unwanted material and select the preferred one. It has been shown that the crab has a spatial memory and is able to find its way back to where a sponge previously removed from it has been cached. In another experiment, an octopus easily detected"
"Diogenes heteropsammicola Diogenes heteropsammicola is a species of hermit crab discovered during samplings between 2012 and 2016 in the shallow waters of the Japanese Amami Islands. This hermit crab species is unique due to the discovery that they use living, growing coral as a shell. Crustaceans of this type commonly replace their shell as the organism grows in size, but ""D. heteropsammicola"" are the first of their kind to use solitary corals as a shell form. ""Heteropsammia"" and ""Heterocyathus"" are the two solitary corals that this hermit species has been observed as occupying. These two coral species are also used"
"becoming more sparse towards the back. The underside of the crab is white. The legs and claws are white with red to purple pigmentation to the same degree and hue as the carapace. Rock crabs are known to feed on sea snails by crushing their shells through the use of a chela (a ""nipper"" or pincer-like appendage). Paul Bourdeau, of the Stony Brook University, calls them, ""the meanest organisms that I have ever come across"". Hemigrapsus sexdentatus Hemigrapsus sexdentatus, known as the common rock crab (sometimes described as ""common shore crab""), is a large-eyed marine crab of the family Varunidae,"
"If a suitable vacant shell cannot be found, crabs may fight each other for shells or even kill living molluscs. The shells chosen by ""Clibanarius vittatus"" are usually whelks or conches. Species selected include the lightning whelk (""Sinistrofulgur sp.""), the knobbed whelk (""Busycon carica""), the giant triton (""Monoplex parthenopeus""), the moon snail (""Neverita duplicata"") and the Florida rocksnail (""Stramonita haemastoma""). The sea anemone, ""Calliactis tricolor"", is often found attached to the shell that is occupied by ""Clibanarius vittatus"". This seems to be a mutualistic arrangement in which the crab benefits from the fact that potential predators are deterred by the"
"of other sea creatures. In laboratory studies, octopuses can easily be trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns. They reportedly use observational learning, although the validity of these findings is contested. Octopuses have also been observed to play: repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them. Octopuses often escape from their aquarium and sometimes enter others. They have boarded fishing boats and opened holds to eat crabs. At least four specimens of the veined octopus (""Amphioctopus marginatus"") have been witnessed retrieving discarded coconut shells, manipulating them, and then reassembling them to"
"that have just moulted are kept for bait, while the hard-shelled crabs are thrown back into the sea. The sand crab has been evaluated as an indicator species for monitoring the level of domoic acid-synthesizing diatoms (""Pseudo-nitzschia"" spp.) which sometimes cause toxic blooms off the coast of California. Emerita analoga Emerita analoga, the Pacific sand crab or Pacific mole crab, is a species of small, sand-burrowing decapod crustacean found living in the sand along the temperate western coasts of North and South America. It is found on exposed sandy beaches in the swash region of the intertidal zone. The Pacific"
"surveyed, ghost crab burrows are regarded as valuable ecological indicators for quickly assessing the impact of human disturbance on beach habitats. Ghost crab Ghost crabs are semiterrestrial crabs of the subfamily Ocypodinae. They are common shore crabs in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, inhabiting deep burrows in the intertidal zone. They are generalist scavengers and predators of small animals. The name ""ghost crab"" derives from their nocturnality and their generally pale coloration. They are also sometimes called sand crabs, though the name refers to various other crabs that do not belong to the subfamily. Characteristics of the subfamily"
"Great spider crab The great spider crab, ""Hyas araneus"", is a species of crab found in northeast Atlantic waters and the North Sea, usually below the tidal zone. In 1986, two specimens were captured at the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, apparently transported by human agency. It has been feared that the species would have an adverse effect on the native fauna, but there have been no further captures from the region since the 1986 specimens. The great spider crab can moult and get rid of their outer shell/skin. This can take some time but it lets them"
"and others are smaller, averaging about the size of Florida horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs possess the rare ability to regrow lost limbs, in a manner similar to sea stars. A wide range of marine species become attached to the carapace, including algae, flat worms, mollusks, barnacles, and bryozoans, and horseshoe crabs have been described as 'walking museums' due to the number of organisms they can support. In areas where ""Limulus"" is common, the shells, exoskeletons or exuviae (molted shells) of horseshoe crabs frequently wash up on beaches, either as whole shells, or as disarticulated pieces. The brain and the heart"
"The exoskeleton tends to linger on the substrate. The exoskeleton resembles a crab that has been removed from his shell, often causing caregivers to believe the crab died. Clibanarius tricolor Clibanarius tricolor is a hermit crab that lives in shallow water of the Caribbean Sea and is popular in the home aquarium trade. Its common names include blue-legged hermit crab, tricolor hermit crab, blueleg reef hermit crab, equal handed hermit crab and blueleg hermit crab. ""C. tricolor"" has blue legs with red banding, and reaches to in size. ""C. tricolor"" is a detritivore, eating dead plants and animals that would"
"tasks would also likely fall to the chelicerae. In crabs, the claws tear food apart and then transport the smaller pieces to the mouth. Based on the feeding process seen in modern arthropods with chelicerae, one of the claws would hold the prey while the other would cut off pieces and transport it to the mouth with continuous and simple movements. Like ""Acutiramus"", ""Pterygotus"" lived in fully marine environments, and its fossils are today recovered associated with common and diverse fossils indicative of such an environment. Notably, ""P. barrandei"" and ""P. cobbi"" occur in marine environments associated with fossils of"
"primarily, sometimes sampling other plant matter and dead animals. It is an agile crab, capable of leaping, and consequently hard to catch. Not considered very edible by humans, it is used as bait by fishermen. It is preyed upon by the Chain moray eel ""Echidna catenata"". ""G. grapsus"" has been observed in an apparent cleaning symbiosis taking ticks from marine iguanas on the Galápagos Islands. ""Grapsus grapsus"" was collected by Charles Darwin during his voyages on HMS ""Beagle"", and also by the first comprehensive study of the fauna of the Gulf of California, carried out by Ed Ricketts, together with"
"coconut shells, manipulating them, transporting them some distance, and then reassembling them to use as a shelter. It is surmised that the octopuses originally used bivalves for the same purpose, before humans made coconut shells widely available on the sea floor. Most hermit crabs use discarded shells of other species for habitation and other crabs choose sea anemones to cultivate on their carapaces as camouflage - as well, numerous insects use rocks, sand, leaves and other substrate materials as building materials; however, this behavior lacks the complexity of the octopus's fortress behavior, which involves picking up and carrying a tool"
"Ghost crab Ghost crabs are semiterrestrial crabs of the subfamily Ocypodinae. They are common shore crabs in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, inhabiting deep burrows in the intertidal zone. They are generalist scavengers and predators of small animals. The name ""ghost crab"" derives from their nocturnality and their generally pale coloration. They are also sometimes called sand crabs, though the name refers to various other crabs that do not belong to the subfamily. Characteristics of the subfamily include one claw being larger than the other, thick and elongated eyestalks, and a box-like body. The differences in claw sizes,"
"and often depicted crabs in their art. In Greek mythology, Karkinos was a crab that came to the aid of the Lernaean Hydra as it battled Heracles. One of Rudyard Kipling's ""Just So Stories"", ""The Crab that Played with the Sea"", tells the story of a gigantic crab who made the waters of the sea go up and down, like the tides. The Kapsiki people of North Cameroon use the way crabs handle objects for divination. Crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting ""tail"" (abdomen) ( = short, / = tail),"
"a deposit feeder, sifting through the sediment for organic matter and the detritus from mangroves, but also has large mandibles that it uses to eat larger pieces of plants and animals. Both males and females use their claws alternately; while one is transferring food to the mouthparts, the other claw is collecting more material. Predators of ""H. cordiformis"" include a variety of birds and fish. Males signal to other crabs by waving their brightly coloured claws, which gives the species its common name of ""semaphore crab"". ""Heloecius cordiformis"" was first described as ""Gelasimus cordiformis"" by Henri Milne-Edwards, in the family"
"diversion when trying to escape from a predator, a process known as autotomy. In this species however, the claws of the cast limb continue to grip vigorously after separation. The limb is regrown by the porcelain crab over the period of several moults. Petrolisthes eriomerus Petrolisthes eriomerus is a species of marine porcelain crab found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the flattop crab. It is a flattened, rounded animal, with a carapace up to across. It is a filter feeder, and also sweeps food from rocks. Porcelain crabs differs from true crabs in having four"
"its predator list is long. It is easy prey for the likes of fish, and octopus. Other crabs are also known to eat the smaller and more unprotected species, like the hermit crab, hence the need for shells to protect the soft body. Because the hermit crab ""sifts"" through the sediment at the bottom of the ocean, smaller invertebrates are known to utilize this as an opportunity for themselves. Hermit crabs display quite interesting behaviours during the shell trading process. The trade usually involves two crabs, they engage in a sort of physical fight probing, rocking and knocking each other's"
"as a home by symbiotic sipunculans of the genus ""Aspidosiphon"", which normally occupy the corals that the crabs were found inhabiting. The discoverers of this species are Momoko Igawa and Makoto Kato of Kyoto University, Japan. Diogenes heteropsammicola Diogenes heteropsammicola is a species of hermit crab discovered during samplings between 2012 and 2016 in the shallow waters of the Japanese Amami Islands. This hermit crab species is unique due to the discovery that they use living, growing coral as a shell. Crustaceans of this type commonly replace their shell as the organism grows in size, but ""D. heteropsammicola"" are the"
"Corystes Corystes cassivelaunus, the masked crab, helmet crab or sand crab, is a burrowing crab of the North Atlantic and North Sea from Portugal to Norway, which also occurs in the Mediterranean Sea. It may grow up to long (carapace length). The name ""masked crab"" derives from the patterns on the carapace which resemble a human face, in a similar manner to ""heikegani"". It is the only species in the genus Corystes. ""C. cassivelaunus"" lives buried in sandy substrates, where it feeds on the infaunal invertebrates such as polychaete worms and bivalve molluscs. It uses its two antennae to form"
"Usually, a few new species are discovered each year. The following list is current : The following are all ""nomina nuda"". They have never been validly described as new species, but only mentioned under these names: Pagurus Pagurus is a genus of hermit crabs in the family Paguridae. Like other hermit crabs, their abdomen is not calcified and they use snail shells as portable homes. These marine decapod crustaceans are omnivorous, but mostly prey on small animals and scavenge carrion. ""Trigonocheirus"" and ""Pagurixus"" used to be considered subgenera of ""Pagurus"", but the former is nowadays included in ""Orthopagurus"", while the"
"are the shells of marine mollusks, partly because these shells are usually made of calcium carbonate, and endure better than shells made of chitin. Apart from mollusk shells, other shells that can be found on beaches are those of barnacles, horseshoe crabs and brachiopods. Marine annelid worms in the family Serpulidae create shells which are tubes made of calcium carbonate cemented onto other surfaces. The shells of sea urchins are called ""tests"", and the moulted shells of crabs and lobsters are exuviae. While most seashells are external, some cephalopods have internal shells. Seashells have been used by humans for many"
"Hemigrapsus takanoi Hemigrapsus takanoi, the brush-clawed shore crab or Asian shore crab, is a small crab of the family Varunidae (formerly classified as Grapsidae) that lives on rocky shores surrounding the Pacific Ocean, and which is invasive along the European coastlines. This crab is omnivorous and eats small fish, invertebrates and algae. Prior to 2005, the name ""Hemigrapsus penicillatus"" was used to cover animals that are now known to represent two distinct species. ""Hemigrapsus penicillatus"" (""sensu stricto"") has smaller patches of setae (bristles) on the chelae (claws) in males; ""Hemigrapsus takanoi"" has larger setal patches and larger coloured spots on"
"in his 1758 10th edition of """", under the name """"Cancer cursor"""". Ocypode cursor Ocypode cursor, the tufted ghost crab, is a species of ghost crab found on sandy beaches along the coasts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean and eastern Mediterranean Sea. ""Ocypode cursor"" can reach a carapace width of . ""O. cursor"" can be distinguished from ""O. ceratophthalma"" and other species of ""Ocypode"" by the presence of a tuft of setae (bristles) extending from the tips of the eyestalks. ""Ocypode cursor"" has a disjunct distribution, comprising the eastern Mediterranean Sea and tropical parts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean, but"
"Ancient Greek ('), which, alongside """" (""""), was used to refer to edible marine crabs; neither classical term can be confidently assigned to a particular species. Although the genus ""Cancer"" formerly included most crabs, it has since been restricted to eight species. Within that set of closely related species, the closest relative of ""C. pagurus"" is the Jonah crab, ""C. borealis"", from the east coast of North America. Cancer pagurus Cancer pagurus, commonly known as the edible crab or brown crab, is a species of crab found in the North Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and perhaps the Mediterranean Sea. It"
"for shells of certain species. Pagurus bernhardus Pagurus bernhardus is the common marine hermit crab of Europe's Atlantic coasts. It is sometimes referred to as the common hermit crab or soldier crab. Its carapace reaches long, and is found in both rocky and sandy areas, from the Arctic waters of Iceland, Svalbard and Russia as far south as southern Portugal, but its range does not extend as far as the Mediterranean Sea. It can be found in pools on the upper shore and at the mean tide level down to a depth of approximately , with smaller specimens generally found"
"of many types of soft-shell crab. Mud crabs can be killed by placing them in a freezer for up to two hours before cooking. Scylla serrata Scylla serrata (often called mud crab or mangrove crab, although both terms are highly ambiguous, as well as black crab) is an ecologically important species of crab found in the estuaries and mangroves of Africa, Australia and Asia. In their most common form, the shell colour varies from a deep, mottled green to very dark brown. The natural range of ""Scylla serrata"" is in the Indo-Pacific. It is found from South Africa, around the"
"Thalamita crenata The mangrove swimming crab (""Thalamita crenata""), also called the crenate swimming crab or spiny rock crab, is a swimming crab species in the genus ""Thalamita"". Distributed all over marine and brackish waters of Indo-West Pacific regions. It is widely used as an edible crab in many countries. A mangrove inhabitant, it is found all over southern Red Sea, Somalia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Islands, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia. Carapace round with five antero-lateral teeth. Carapace with 3 pairs of gastric ridges"
"Atlantic ghost crab The Atlantic ghost crab, ""Ocypode quadrata"", is a species of ghost crab, once described as an ""occult, secretive alien from the ancient depths of the sea"". It is a common species along the Atlantic coast of the United States, where it is the only species of ghost crab; its range of distribution extends from its northernmost reach on beaches in Westport, Massachusetts, south along the coasts of the tropical Western Atlantic Ocean to the beach of Barra do Chui, in Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. Adults are greyish or the color of straw, and around"
"Atlantic horseshoe crab The Atlantic horseshoe crab (""Limulus polyphemus""), also known as the American horseshoe crab, is a species of marine and brackish chelicerate arthropod. Despite their name, horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. This species is found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast of North America. A main area of annual migration is Delaware Bay. Their eggs were eaten by Native Americans, but today Atlantic horseshoe crabs are caught for use as fishing bait, in biomedicine (especially for ""Limulus"" amebocyte lysate) and science. They play a major"
"occupy a small part of a broken snail shell. Eventually they become a juvenile hermit crab and start there hunt for a suitable shell. Hermit crabs are scavengers, they will forage during the night for dead or injured animals and feed off their remains. They can also be found moving about in rock pools during the day. They sometimes partially bury themselves into the sediment and feed on the organic matter, as well as algae, immobile invertebrates and filtered plankton and food particles. They are detritus feeders and eat a fairly broad and assorted diet. The hermit crab has one"
"Cancer pagurus Cancer pagurus, commonly known as the edible crab or brown crab, is a species of crab found in the North Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and perhaps the Mediterranean Sea. It is a robust crab of a reddish-brown colour, having an oval carapace with a characteristic ""pie crust"" edge and black tips to the claws. A mature adult may have a carapace width up to and weigh up to . ""C. pagurus"" is a nocturnal predator, targeting a range of molluscs and crustaceans. It is the subject of the largest crab fishery in Western Europe, centred on the coasts"