Hermit crabs distributed in the Indo-Pacific, often found in the Marshall Islands and Hawaii Islands, as well as off the coast of Australia.
Watching through the film of water for life at the bottom of the shallow waters of the bays and bays of the Sea of Japan, you can sometimes see a strange sight: along the soft folds of the bottom sand, the shell of the gastropod moves with inconceivable speed. And only if you pull it to the surface, you can find an explanation for such speed records – it’s not a snail, but a hermit crab hidden in an abandoned shell.
On closer inspection, you can see that there are many at the bottom of the hermits: very small ones in shells with a pea, and large ones in shells with a fist. There are many types of hermits, but the common features are the same: the front of the body is covered with a chitinous shell, and the long soft abdomen is devoid of hard coating. To protect this “Achilles heel”, a hermit crab and hides the back of the trunk in an empty shell. Forcibly removed from its shelter, the hermit crab feels restless, resembling a bather who stole clothes.
Usually, after molting, the old shell becomes tight for its owner, and he looks for a new, more spacious one. Under her protection, he hunts and hides in it in the event of an attack, closing its mouth with claws.
