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Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab

Calcinus laevimanus

Description:

A 30mm sized Hermit crab with bright colours. It belongs to the family Diogenidae. Spotting #200

Habitat:

Indian Ocean, in a small pool among reefs and rocks, created due to low tide.

Notes:

Distribution: East Africa, across Indian Ocean, Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands, Australia, New Caledonia, Indonesia Philippine Islands, Japan, Taiwan, Marianas, French Polynesia, Hawaiian Islands; intertidal to very shallow subtidal. Habitat: Hard substrates of littoral zone, particularly in areas of shallow pools and ridges towards the upper part of shore with sparse algal growth, also on coral rubble, rocky platforms, sand and mud flats.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab
Calcinus laevimanus HermitIDF4


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22 Comments

Tiz
Tiz 10 years ago

Obrigada pelo seu comentário simpático, António. I am quite blessed to be in a part of the world so interesting and versatile. The only thing I actually do is carrying my camera, the rest is the work of nature :)

Wow another perfect series,you are in great spotting "shape",congrats and thanks for sharing

Tiz
Tiz 10 years ago

Marta, RiekoS and Adarsha :) Thank you for your nice comments!!

Adarsha B S
Adarsha B S 10 years ago

Fascinating pic Tina !

RiekoS
RiekoS 10 years ago

Very nice! I love it.

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago

Beautiful blue eyes!

Tiz
Tiz 10 years ago

Very interesting facts, links and ID AshleyM. I will add your ID suggestion, even if there are some dubts whether this are a subspecies of the Calcinus laevimanus. We can always change it later on if we manage to find more information. Thank you for your work with this!!!

To Luis, Braulio and KarenL, thank you so very much for your fantastic comments :)))

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 10 years ago

Great series Tiz!

Braulio Rivas Tapia
Braulio Rivas Tapia 10 years ago

Amazing macro!

AshleyM.Goncalves
AshleyM.Goncalves 10 years ago

I just read an entire forum...apparently there is a lot of confusion among the scientific community in identifying this particular group of crabs (especially of the Clibanarius genus). The lady in the forum (provided in the link in my suggestion), has been trying to identify this crab for over a year since she first posted. No one thus far has been able to help her, though this crab most closely resembles the Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab. This may be a new species, as aquarists are giving many names to the same crab, calling it a morph of the blue-legged hermit crab or the dwarf-zebra hermit crab. I think it most closely resembles Calcinus laevimanus, but we should take a real close look at this little guy! You may have hit something.

AshleyM.Goncalves
AshleyM.Goncalves 10 years ago

It looks like a morph of Clibanarius tricolor. The bands are even in a strikingly similar pattern. From what I have seen, Clibanarius tricolor comes in many patterns and colors, with blue always prevalent. I will suggest it, it's just that this guy's colors are so very unique! Perhaps a new member of the Clibanarius genus?

KarenL
KarenL 10 years ago

Adorable!

Sckel
Sckel 10 years ago

Oh, Phew! I thought making smoke signals. I'm happy that we can communicate, even I do not know English. I do not like when is appearing very brown background. Thank you. I'll test. :)

Tiz
Tiz 10 years ago

Ah, I think I got it. The first is 1970 x 2015
Perhaps 2000 x 2000 is fitting the best (not sure, never thought about this before). I hope this answers your question :)

Sckel
Sckel 10 years ago

I wonder what size I cut out the picture so that it fills the brown background, as you did in the first photo.

Tiz
Tiz 10 years ago

hmm, I am not sure I understand the question "How do you conseguiu the first photo occupy the square brown? I would like to know the size of the scale". Can you explain again?

Sckel
Sckel 10 years ago

It's a funny story. I think he felt like the woman from the movie King Kong. . :) How do you conseguiu the first photo occupy the square brown? I would like to know the size of the scale.

Tiz
Tiz 10 years ago

Thank you Maria :) I am terrible at picking the first photo, so I listened to you and changed the first and the second :)

Kel, I do adore this crab too. I saw three different hermit crabs during the two hours I was on the beach. One was very cool, he seemed to have built his shell himself! Curious I lifted him out of the water, but he became so scared that he left his "house". I felt terrible holding that empty shell, and the crab trying to escape me with his naked little spiral tail... I told him I was sorry many times, and tried to put the shell close to him so he could crawl back in. I still feel bad tbh haha!

Thank you very much Cindy :)

Maria dB
Maria dB 10 years ago

Especially like the second and fourth photos! Very nice series

Sckel
Sckel 10 years ago

Great pictures, Cat. Is so small is beautiful. I want one of those cute little thing for me.

Wonderful 200th spotting! Congratulations, Tiz!

Tiz
Spotted by
Tiz

Nacala, Nampula, Mozambique

Spotted on Oct 5, 2013
Submitted on Oct 7, 2013

Spotted for Mission

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