Pauline Walsh Jacobson, USA
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Paguristes puncticeps Benedict, 1901
Paguristes puncticeps is a hermit crab in the family Diogenidae. It is found in shallow waters in the tropical western Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Like other hermit crabs, it lives in an empty snail shell, which it changes regularly as it grows.
It is a large hermit crab that reaches a length of 8 to 13 cm including the legs and scissor arms. The color is dark red or rusty brown. The hairy shell and legs are brightly spotted with white. The antennae and eyestalks are also dark red and the iris of the eyes is blue. In most members of this family the left claw is larger than the right, but in the case of Paguristes puncticeps there is little difference in size between the two.
Its depth range extends from the low tide mark to about 40 m. It is mostly found in coral reef habitats.
Paguristes puncticeps is a scavenger and detritivore that feeds on any animal or plant matter it finds.
Reproduction takes place all year round. The first larval stages take place in the egg, from which a planktonic zoea larva then hatches. When the hermit is fully developed, it settles on the seabed and transforms into a juvenile that must find a small free snail shell to live in.
The empty shells of the king snail (Aliger gigas) are commonly used by this hermit crab, as well as the Florida horse snail (Triplofusus papillosus), the largest gastropod mollusk in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Cephalopods such as the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and the Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) feed on lobsters, crabs, hermit crabs and mollusks and often carry their prey back to their burrow, where they deposit the inedible parts nearby. The trash pile represents a source of empty snail shells available to hermit crabs. Paguristes puncticeps has also been observed carrying empty snail shells away from these piles. The garbage piles also attract hermit crabs, which feed on leftover food left behind by the octopus. However, this is a risky business near the octopus cave. Smaller hermit crabs (shell length less than 5 mm) sometimes live in the octopus' cave and feed on scraps of food left by the octopus.
Hermit with similar blue eyes is Paguristes sericeus (Caribbean, Florida, Bahamas).
Paguristes puncticeps is a hermit crab in the family Diogenidae. It is found in shallow waters in the tropical western Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Like other hermit crabs, it lives in an empty snail shell, which it changes regularly as it grows.
It is a large hermit crab that reaches a length of 8 to 13 cm including the legs and scissor arms. The color is dark red or rusty brown. The hairy shell and legs are brightly spotted with white. The antennae and eyestalks are also dark red and the iris of the eyes is blue. In most members of this family the left claw is larger than the right, but in the case of Paguristes puncticeps there is little difference in size between the two.
Its depth range extends from the low tide mark to about 40 m. It is mostly found in coral reef habitats.
Paguristes puncticeps is a scavenger and detritivore that feeds on any animal or plant matter it finds.
Reproduction takes place all year round. The first larval stages take place in the egg, from which a planktonic zoea larva then hatches. When the hermit is fully developed, it settles on the seabed and transforms into a juvenile that must find a small free snail shell to live in.
The empty shells of the king snail (Aliger gigas) are commonly used by this hermit crab, as well as the Florida horse snail (Triplofusus papillosus), the largest gastropod mollusk in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Cephalopods such as the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and the Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) feed on lobsters, crabs, hermit crabs and mollusks and often carry their prey back to their burrow, where they deposit the inedible parts nearby. The trash pile represents a source of empty snail shells available to hermit crabs. Paguristes puncticeps has also been observed carrying empty snail shells away from these piles. The garbage piles also attract hermit crabs, which feed on leftover food left behind by the octopus. However, this is a risky business near the octopus cave. Smaller hermit crabs (shell length less than 5 mm) sometimes live in the octopus' cave and feed on scraps of food left by the octopus.
Hermit with similar blue eyes is Paguristes sericeus (Caribbean, Florida, Bahamas).
