Physical Description
Size
Native Habitat
They are found in a wide variety of coastal habitats, including bays, mangrove swamps, sandy beaches, mud flats, intertidal and other shoreline areas. They are tolerant of brackish water and more saline ocean water, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones.
Populations of this crustacean can be found all along the Atlantic Coast, ranging from the U.S. state of Virginia down to Brazil.
Communication
Food/Eating Habits
Sleep Habits
Social Structure
Striped hermit crabs are fairly social crustaceans, and share territory with other crabs with few issues.
Reproduction and Development
When ready to mate, the male will tap lightly on the shell of the female. Following copulation, the female lays a mass of eggs called a sponge, which she carries around on her abdomen. These sponges can include between 1,000 and 30,000 individual eggs, each of which is about half a millimeter long. A female can produce these egg clutches several times over the course of a breeding season.
After a few weeks, the eggs hatch into a larval stage, forming tiny planktonic organisms that transition into several more developmental stages—four swimming larval stages and one post-larval stage called a glaucothoe—before metamorphosizing on the ocean floor and finally becoming hermit crabs.