''Dardanus megistos'', the white-spotted hermit crab or spotted hermit crab, is a species of

hermit crab Hermit crabs are anomuran decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit crab, most of which possess an as ...

belonging to the family

Diogenidae The Diogenidae are a family of hermit crabs, sometimes known as "left-handed hermit crabs" because in contrast to most other hermit crabs, its left chela (claw) is enlarged instead of the right. It comprises 429 extant species, and a further 4 ...

Etymology

The genus name '' Dardanus'' refers to the son of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

and Electra in Greek mythology, while the species name ''megistos'' is the superlative of the Greek word ''mega'', therefore it means ''the largest''.

Distribution

This species is present in the Indo-Pacific region from East

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

to the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...

, Australia and east to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

Habitat

These tropical reef-associated crabs occur in coral reef, lagoons, rocky platforms, sand and seagrass beds, from littoral and subtidal zones to deep waters, at depths up to 50 m. Sealife Base
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Description

''Dardanus megistos'' can reach a body length of about . These large crabs have a bright red body with small white eyespots surrounded by black. Their bodies are covered with long erect coarse hairs of a dark red color. They have a pair of long white primary antennae or antennules, a pair of secondary antennae, stalked green brown eyes and three pairs of mouth appendages. The stalks of the eyes are reddish with a basal white spot. The soft, asymmetrical abdomen is spiral-shaped, useful in keeping in the shell, with a five-piece tail (

telson The telson () is the posterior-most division of the body of an arthropod. Depending on the definition, the telson is either considered to be the final segment of the arthropod body, or an additional division that is not a true segment on accou ...

and

uropods Uropods are posterior appendages found on a wide variety of crustaceans. They typically have functions in locomotion. Definition Uropods are often defined as the appendages of the last body segment of a crustacean. An alternative definition sugg ...

). Like all decapod crustaceans, they have ten legs. The first pair of legs carries the pincers ( chelipeds). The left plier is bigger than the right one.DORIS - Données d'Observations pour la Reconnaissance et l'Identification de la faune et la flore Subaquatiques

Biology

The white-spotted hermit crabs are

gonochoric In biology, gonochorism is a sexual system where there are only two sexes and each individual organism is either male or female. The term gonochorism is usually applied in animal species, the vast majority of which are gonochoric. Gonochorism c ...

s, the eggs are carried on the female's abdomen. They also are opportunistic omnivore, mainly feeding on small invertebrates (worms, molluscs, etc.) and they are also reported to feed on holothurians. Commonly these crabs perform a precopulatory courtship ritual. Usually the sperm transfer is indirect. They may live up to 30 years. These crustaceans usually inhabit a large shell of a gastropod, consequently only the cephalothorax and the first three pairs of legs are visible.

Gallery

File:Dardanus megistos at Gilli Lawa Laut.JPG, ''D. megistos'' at Komodo,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

File: Diogenidae - Dardanus megistos.jpg, ''D. megistos'' at

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...

File:Reef0616 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg, ''D. megistos'' at

Northwest Hawaiian Islands The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or Leeward Hawaiian Islands are a series of islands and atolls in the Hawaiian island chain located northwest (in some cases, far to the northwest) of the islands of Kauai and Niihau. Politically, they are al ...

File: Dardanus.jpg, ''D. megistos'' at Aliguay Island

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Bibliography

*Barnes, D.K.A. and R.J. Arnold 2001 Ecology of subtropical hermit crabs in S.W. Madagascar: cluster structure and function. Mar. Biol. 139:463-474. *Fize, A. & Serène, R. 1955. Les Pagures du Vietnam. Vietnam : Institut Océanographique de Nhatrang 228 pp., 6 pls. *Liu, J.Y. uiyu(ed.). (2008). Checklist of marine biota of China seas. China Science Press. 1267 pp. *McLaughlin, P. A.; Komai, T.; Lemaitre, R.; Rahayu, D.L. (2010). Annotated checklist of anomuran decapod crustaceans of the world (exclusive of the Kiwaoidea and families Chirostylidae and Galatheidae of the Galatheoidea. Part I – Lithodoidea, Lomisoidea and Paguroidea. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 23: 5-107. *Milne Edwards, H. 1848. Sur quelques nouvelles espèces du genre Pagure. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Paris 10: 59-64 *Olivier, A.G. 1811. Pagure. pp. 636-649 in Olivier, A.G. (ed.). Encyclopédie Méthodique. Histoire Naturelle. Insectes. Paris : H. Agasse Vol. 8 772 pp. *Reay, P.J. & J. Haig (1990). Coastal hermit crabs (Decapoda: Anomura) from Kenya, with a review and key to East African species. Bulletin of Marine Science 46(3): 578-589 *Sakai, K. 1999. J. F. W. Herbst-Collection of decapod Crustacea of the Berlin Zoological Museum, with remarks on certain species. Naturalists, Tokushima Biological Laboratory, Shikoku University 6: 1-45 pls 1-21 *Tudge, C.C. 1995. Hermit Crabs of the Great Barrier Reef and Coastal Queensland. Brisbane : University of Queensland and Backhuys Publishers 40 pp.

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q29183 Hermit crabs Crustaceans described in 1804 Articles containing video clips