The Alien Hermit

To me this hermit crab looks pretty much like an Alien in this photo - And for some reason it makes me remember of the book "The War of the Worlds"

comments (7)

Claire Hamilton

Lion

It certainly is a strange creature!
Unfortunately though a new species of 'hermit Crab' cannot be created as it needs to be narrowed down to the actual species and there are 1100 of them! It can still be found by your tags. Posted 11 years ago
1. andy kameruchi
  
  Green Fly
  
  Thanks for your reply! When I try to "identify species", I only get "Caribbean Hermit Crab", or "Coenobita clypeatus", but I think this one is a "Strawberry Hermit Crab", or "Coenobita perlatus"! Well I think we are sure that at least it is from the Coenobita family :)- Cheers! Posted 11 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    hi kameruchi, here's a little help: When you type in the species search, it will suggest options to you, based on the species already on this site (currently about 3,800). When there is no suggestion as you type, it does not mean it cannot be identified, it only means JungleDragon does not yet know it. When you type in the new species in search and hit enter, JungleDragon will then go look for the species online, in Wikipedia. If it finds it, it will automatically create a new species record. I just did this thing for this photo based on the species you suggested.
    
    Sometimes even Wikipedia does not have an article for a species. In that case, you can request manual creation of the species, which is below the "advanced" panel on the species dialog. This one should only be used when the search does not work. Posted 11 years ago
  2. 1. andy kameruchi
      
      Green Fly
      
      Thanks fchristant! Im getting a hold of how it works now! :) This was my first upload and I wasnt sure of what I was doing :P - Cheers! Andy Posted 11 years ago
    2. 1. Albert Kang
        
        Lion
        
        This is probably not a Coenobita perlatus - Strawberry Hermit Crab, which is much easier to identify from their colour for the adults, unless this picture is one of a small juvenile as it looks much smaller in size, which in most cases, very difficult to determine. Posted 5 years ago
  3. WildFlower
    
    Lion
    
    Looking at other photos of the Strawberry Hermit Crab, this doesn't look like one. It's not the best photo to identify from, but the legs look rather smooth.
    Here's a reference for the genus Coenobita in French. I find it hard to discriminate between them.
    http://coenobita.e-monsite.com/pages/especes-et-biotopes/les-differentes-especes.html Posted 11 years ago
  4. 1. andy kameruchi
      
      Green Fly
      
      Hi WildFlower, you are right, it doesnt look like the typical photo of a strawberry h.c.! I came to that conclusion because of the area where I found it, the slightly pink color it had (I lowered the saturation to almost zero in post), and from some photos of small strawberry h.c. I saw that were pretty similar. But it is true about the legs not being rough- I hadnt noticed that detail! Hard to tell- I took a quick look to photos of different members of the coenobita genus and the most similar one was the perlatus, but let me know if you find a better match! :) Thanks for the input! Posted 11 years ago

The Coenobita perlatus

''Coenobita perlatus'', is a species of terrestrial hermit crab. It is known as the strawberry hermit crab because of its reddish orange colours. It is a widespread scavenger across the Indo-Pacific, and is also traded to hobby aquarists.

Info 3 0

Similar species: Decapods

Species identified by Ferdy Christant

By andy kameruchi

Uploaded Jun 26, 2014. Captured in Bahaaudheen Magu, Addu City, Maldives.

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