Crabs Steal Homes And Disguise Them.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 63, 16 March 1931, Page 6

Crabs Steal Homes And Disguise Them.

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond, F.L.S.. F.Z.S.

£JRABS on New Zealand coasts sometimes may be seen occupying the shells of shellfishes. Living a recluse life, they are called hermit crabs, a group found in all parts of the world, and greatly developed in the Tropics. The hermits do not wear carapaces. It is believed that they usurp the dwellings of shellfish for safety, retiring into them on the approach of an enemy. Surprise is caused at the way in which the hermits have adapted themselves to this career. Their tails, their legs, and parts of their bodies have been modified to fit the stolen dwellings. The hermits drag them from place to place. One hermit sometimes pulls another hermit out of a shell and takes possession. Becoming too big for a shell taken early in life, a hermit vacates that shell and seeks a larger one. Higher ingenuity is shown by hermits that tear sea-anemones from their moorings on rocks carry them in the claws, and place them ’on the shells. The sea-anemones falling In with the arrangement, adhere to the outside of the shells, accompanying the hermits on their wanderings, masking the hermits’ real character, warding off enemies by the power of stinging, and, perhaps, catching swiftly-swimming shrimps, which the hermits eat. In return, tha sea-anemones are carried to fresh feeding-grounds and gatjier crumbs that fall from the hermits’ tables. This sort of partnership often is entered into in the animal kingdom. It is a partnership of mutual benefit, known in biology as symbiosis.