DETAILS
- Discipline
NH: ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATES: CRUSTACEANS (CRABS, LOBSTER, SHRIMP, WOODLICE)
- Scientific Name
Pagurus bernhardus
- Common Name
Hermit Crab
- Date Collected
5 November 2007
- Place Collected
Scotland, Ayrshire, West Kilbride beach, (place collected)
- Form
wet preserved
- Description
-
The common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus) is found all around Europe’s Atlantic coastline. Like all hermit crabs they have a soft abdomen which they protect by living in an empty gastropod shell. These crabs were found living in common periwinkle (Littorina littorea) shells but as they grow they need to find shells from larger molluscs.
These crabs scavenge for carrion as well as occasionally filter feeding. Small specimens are common in rock pools with larger ones living in deeper waters.
These crabs were collected from the beach at West Kilbride on the Clyde coast by a museum curator on a collecting trip. They were preserved in spirit along with the mollusc shells they inhabited. - ID Number
Z.2008.3.8
- Location
In storage
- Terms