Animal
Caribbean hermit crab
The Caribbean hermit crab lives on land. It carries a borrowed snail shell on its back. When it grows too big for its shell, it moves into a bigger one.
The Caribbean hermit crab is a land hermit crab with a big purple claw and red legs. It lives near the coasts of Bermuda, Florida and the Caribbean, carries an empty snail shell for protection, and goes back to the sea only to release its eggs.
Coenobita clypeatus, a land hermit crab of the family Coenobitidae, lives in coastal forests, mangroves and salt marshes from Bermuda and Florida through the Caribbean. Adults are terrestrial but depend on the sea twice over: for the gastropod shells they live in and for their planktonic larvae.
Photo: ZooFari, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the Caribbean hermit crab
The Caribbean hermit crab carries a shell on its back, like a snail.
But the shell is not its own! It borrows an empty shell that a sea snail left behind.
The Caribbean hermit crab is a hermit crab that lives on land. Like all hermit crabs, it has a soft back end, so it tucks its body inside an empty shell left by another animal, usually a sea snail, and carries it everywhere.
It is easy to spot: it has one large purple claw and hairy red and purple legs that stick out of the front of its shell. When danger comes near, it pulls its whole body back inside. People also call it the soldier crab and the purple pincher.
Coenobita clypeatus belongs to the land hermit crabs, family Coenobitidae, the same family as the much larger coconut crab. The Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources describes its soft body, a hook-shaped tail and strong legs that grip the inside of a borrowed shell, and a large claw with hairy red and purple legs protruding from the shell opening.
As a terrestrial animal it faces the problem of drying out. In his long study of the species on Curaçao, de Wilde (1973) found that the water kept inside the shell is slightly less salty than seawater, and that crabs survived an average of about 8 days of dehydration under normal island conditions.
Quick facts
- Group
- Invertebrate
- Length
- up to 10 cm
Where it lives
Caribbean hermit crabs live near warm beaches.
They live in Bermuda, Florida and on islands in the Caribbean Sea. They hide under plants, rocks and in holes in trees.
Caribbean hermit crabs live in the western Atlantic: on Bermuda, in Florida and across the Caribbean. They make their homes in coastal forests, mangrove forests and salt marshes, not far from the sea.
During the day they hide under plants near the shore, under rock ledges or in holes in trees, where herons and other hunters cannot find them. They can even climb high up into coastal trees.
The Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources describes the species as native to Bermuda and also found in Florida and the Caribbean, in mangrove forests, salt marshes and coastal forest. A 2015 review of museum and published records by Lemaitre and colleagues found that its southern limit is the southern Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago, and that it does not occur on the coast of Brazil, as had been believed.
De Wilde (1973) described land hermit crabs as characteristic of tropical coasts and islands and found that this species prefers areas with a relatively dry climate; his Curaçao study focused on inland crabs, which he considered further along in adapting to life on land.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Coasts of Bermuda, Florida and the Caribbean, south to the southern Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago; not Brazil. Venezuela is shaded for its Caribbean islands (Los Roques, Las Aves, La Blanquilla), which the World Register of Marine Species lists. Bermuda, Curaçao and the smaller Caribbean islands are too small to show. In the United States it lives only in Florida. Caribbean mainland coasts and
Places: United States, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Rep., Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.
Source: https://environment.bm/land-hermit-crab · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Puerto Rico, United States, Mexico, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Dominican Rep., Belize, Cuba and 22 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Caribbean hermit crabs eat all kinds of plants.
They also eat dead fish and other dead animals. That helps keep the beach clean!
Caribbean hermit crabs eat all kinds of plants. They also scavenge, eating rotting animals and dead fish that they find.
That makes them part of nature's clean-up crew. By eating dead animals and plants, they help recycle them back into the coastal forest and shore.
The Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources describes a broad plant diet and scavenging of rotting animals and dead fish, which places the crab among the shore's decomposers and recyclers.
Where a crab lives shapes what it can eat and drink. On Curaçao, de Wilde (1973) found that older crabs living well inland settle in places rich in food with a supply of fresh or brackish water to drink.
Did you know?
A hermit crab keeps a little water in its shell.
Hermit crabs keep a little water inside their shells. On Curaçao, it was found to be slightly less salty than seawater.
De Wilde (1973) measured shell water at about 32 to 33 parts per thousand salinity, slightly below seawater at 36.
A crab with a borrowed house
A hermit crab has a big purple claw and hairy red legs.
Its back end is soft and curly. That is why it needs a shell to keep it safe.
A Caribbean hermit crab has one big purple claw and a smaller one. Its legs are red and purple and covered with little hairs. Its eyes sit on stalks, and long feelers stick out in front.
The back part of its body is soft and curls into the shell. A hook-shaped tail and strong back legs grip the inside of the shell, so the crab can carry it while it walks and climbs. If it is scared, it can pull its whole body back into the shell.
Like other hermit crabs, Coenobita clypeatus has a soft abdomen, with a hook-shaped tail and strong legs that anchor it inside a borrowed shell (Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources). The chelipeds are unequal, one claw much larger than the other.
The shell also helps the crab manage water. De Wilde (1973) measured the water held in the shell at about 32 to 33 parts per thousand of salt, slightly below normal seawater at 36, and found the crab's body fluids work best near 34 to 35.
From the sea to a shell
A mother hermit crab walks down to the sea.
She lets her eggs go into the water. Tiny babies come out and float in the sea. Later they grow into little crabs and find small shells.
Even though Caribbean hermit crabs live on land, their babies need the sea. A female carries her eggs to the shore and releases them into the water. The eggs burst open in the seawater, and tiny young crabs drift with the plankton.
When they have grown, the young crabs live on land and need a shell of their own. As a crab grows too big for its shell, it searches for a bigger one, then quickly climbs out of the old shell and into the new one.
The Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources describes females going down to the sea to release fertilized eggs, which burst open on contact with seawater; the young then drift as part of the plankton. On Curaçao, de Wilde (1973) found the reproductive period ran from July to about November.
Once on land, growth depends on a supply of shells. Each time a crab outgrows its shell it must find a larger one and switch quickly, while its soft abdomen is exposed. Because these are the largest hermit crabs in Bermuda, big enough shells are scarce there, so the shell supply limits how many crabs can survive.
Climbers and shell swappers
Hermit crabs are good climbers.
They hide in safe places when herons are near. When danger comes, they pull back inside their shells.
Caribbean hermit crabs are good climbers and can often be found high up in coastal trees. During the day they shelter under plants, rock ledges or in holes in trees, where herons and other predators cannot reach them.
Their biggest job is finding the right shell. In Bermuda, the big West Indian topshell snail was once their main shell supply, but people ate so many of these snails that they disappeared from Bermuda. The crabs had to make do with old fossil shells, other shells, and even rubbish.
The Bermuda account describes climbing high into coastal trees and sheltering under coastal vegetation, rock ledges and in tree holes, out of reach of herons and other predators.
Its shell story shows how one species depends on another. The West Indian topshell, a large snail that was the crab's main shell source on Bermuda, was eaten by early settlers until it was extirpated; the crabs fell back on fossil topshells, other shells and human garbage. The topshell was reintroduced in 1982 and protected from harvesting, and as it becomes common again on the South Shore, conservationists hope the crabs' housing shortage will ease.
Did you know?
A hermit crab moves house when its shell gets too small.
When a hermit crab outgrows its shell, it finds a bigger one and quickly crawls out of the old shell and into the new one.
The switch to a new shell is made quickly; outside a shell, the crab's soft body has no protection.
Helping hermit crabs
In Bermuda, these hermit crabs are now rare.
People there protect them. They also bring back sea snails, so the crabs will have more shells to live in.
The Caribbean hermit crab has not been assessed by the IUCN Red List, so there is no worldwide status. In Bermuda, it is now rare and is protected by law as a Vulnerable species.
It has lost homes as mangroves and coasts were cleared and built on, and hurricanes have damaged its habitat. A shortage of shells has held it back too. Bermuda brought back the topshell snail, and in 2020 it published a plan to help the crabs recover.
There is no global IUCN Red List assessment (GBIF's IUCN checklist lists the species as Not Evaluated). In Bermuda, the population is listed as Vulnerable under the Protected Species Act 2003, and a recovery plan was published in 2020.
The Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources attributes the decline there to a shortage of suitable shells, loss of mangrove and coastal habitat to clearing and development, and hurricane damage. Reintroducing and protecting the West Indian topshell, the crab's preferred shell source, is part of the response.
Did you know?
Caribbean hermit crabs can climb trees.
Caribbean hermit crabs can often be found high up in coastal trees.
The species is a capable climber, often found high in coastal trees (Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources).
Amazing facts
-
A hermit crab moves house when its shell gets too small.
When a hermit crab outgrows its shell, it finds a bigger one and quickly crawls out of the old shell and into the new one.
The switch to a new shell is made quickly; outside a shell, the crab's soft body has no protection.
-
Caribbean hermit crabs can climb trees.
Caribbean hermit crabs can often be found high up in coastal trees.
The species is a capable climber, often found high in coastal trees (Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources).
-
In Bermuda, hermit crabs once used old fossil shells.
When Bermuda ran out of big topshell snails, its hermit crabs used fossil shells, other shells and even rubbish as homes.
After the West Indian topshell was extirpated from Bermuda, crabs used fossil topshells, other shells and human garbage until the snail's 1982 reintroduction.
-
A hermit crab keeps a little water in its shell.
Hermit crabs keep a little water inside their shells. On Curaçao, it was found to be slightly less salty than seawater.
De Wilde (1973) measured shell water at about 32 to 33 parts per thousand salinity, slightly below seawater at 36.
Words to know
- hermit crab
- a crab with a soft back end that lives inside an empty shell
- scavenger
- an animal that eats dead plants or animals it finds
- mangrove
- a tree that grows in salty water along tropical coasts
- plankton
- tiny living things that drift in the water
- extirpated
- gone from one place, though still living elsewhere
- vulnerable
- at risk of becoming endangered
Discovery challenge
-
Where does a hermit crab get its shell?
Where does a Caribbean hermit crab get its shell?
How does Coenobita clypeatus obtain its shell?
- It grows its own shell
- It borrows an empty shell made by another animal
- It builds one out of sand
Show the answer
It borrows an empty shell made by another animal
It borrows an empty shell, often from a sea snail.
Hermit crabs don't make shells; they use empty ones made by other animals, such as sea snails.
It occupies empty gastropod shells and exchanges them for larger ones as it grows.
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Where do the babies of this hermit crab start their lives?
Where do Caribbean hermit crabs release their eggs?
Where are the eggs of Coenobita clypeatus released?
- In a tree hole
- Under a rock in the forest
- In the sea
Show the answer
In the sea
In the sea. The mother walks down to the water.
Females go down to the sea and release their eggs, which burst open in the seawater.
Into seawater, where the eggs hatch and the young drift as plankton.
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What color is this hermit crab's big claw?
What color is the Caribbean hermit crab's big claw?
Which describes the large cheliped of Coenobita clypeatus?
- Purple
- Green
- White
Show the answer
Purple
Its big claw is purple. That is why some people call it the purple pincher.
It is purple, giving it the nickname purple pincher; its legs are red and purple.
A large purple claw, much bigger than the other; the legs are hairy and red and purple.
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Why were there few hermit crabs in Bermuda?
What was one reason Bermuda's hermit crabs became rare?
Which factor contributed to the decline of Coenobita clypeatus in Bermuda?
- Too much snow
- Not enough big shells to live in
- Too many polar bears
Show the answer
Not enough big shells to live in
There were not enough big shells. Now people are bringing back the sea snails.
The big topshell snails whose shells they used were eaten until they were gone; habitat loss and hurricanes also harmed the crabs.
A shortage of suitable shells after the topshell's extirpation, together with loss of mangrove and coastal habitat and hurricane damage.
Places where you might see it
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain why a hermit crab needs a borrowed shell and why it changes shells.
- Describe a life cycle that begins in the sea and continues on land.
- Explain how the loss of one species (a snail) can affect another (the hermit crab).
- Name threats to the species in Bermuda and how people are helping.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- What makes a good shell for a hermit crab? Think about size, weight and shape.
- Why might bringing back a snail help a crab?
- Why should people leave empty shells on beaches where hermit crabs live?
Try at home or in class
- Collect a few boxes or cups of different sizes and line them up from smallest to largest, the way a growing hermit crab needs bigger and bigger shells.
- Measure 10 centimeters on a ruler and draw a hermit crab that size, with its big claw sticking out of its shell.
Key vocabulary: hermit crab, scavenger, mangrove, plankton, extirpated, vulnerable
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Land Hermit Crab (Coenobita clypeatus) , Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources
- New taxonomic and distributional information on hermit crabs (Crustacea: Anomura: Paguroidea) from the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and Atlantic coast of South America (Lemaitre et al. 2015, Zootaxa 3994(4): 451–506), abstract , Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) Marine Info
- Coenobita clypeatus (Fabricius, 1787): distribution , World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
- On the ecology of Coenobita clypeatus in Curaçao with reference to reproduction, water economy and osmoregulation in terrestrial hermit crabs (de Wilde 1973, Studies on the Fauna of Curaçao and other Caribbean Islands 44) , Naturalis Biodiversity Center repository
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.