Pagurus pollicaris

Pagurus pollicaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Pleocyemata
Infraorder:	Anomura
Family:	Paguridae
Genus:	Pagurus
Species:	P. pollicaris
Binomial name
Pagurus pollicaris Say, 1817  [1]

Pagurus pollicaris is a hermit crab commonly found along the Atlantic coast of North America from New Brunswick to the Gulf of Mexico. It is known by a number of common names, including gray hermit crab, ^[1] flat-clawed hermit crab, ^[2] flatclaw hermit crab, ^[1] shield hermit crab, ^[2] thumb-clawed hermit crab, ^[3] broad-clawed hermit crab, ^[4] and warty hermit crab. ^[5]

P. pollicaris inhabits the shells of shark eye snails and whelks. ^[4] It grows to a length of 31 millimetres (1.2 in) and a width of 25 mm (1.0 in). ^[2] The crab is a pale off-white with unevenly sized, broad, flat claws that can lock together to act as an operculum when the crab withdraws into its shell. ^[6] The shell is often shared by the commensal zebra flatworm ( Stylochus ellipticus ). ^[2]

The diet of the flat-clawed hermit crab comprises organic matter, algae, and sometimes other hermit crabs. Fish are the most important predators of this species.

References

1. "Pagurus pollicaris Say, 1817". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
2. Andrew J. Martinez & Candace Storm Martinez (2003). "Flat-clawed hermit crab Pagurus pollicaris". Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to New England (3rd ed.). Aqua Quest Publications. p. 162. ISBN   978-1-881652-32-8.
3. Susan B. Rothschild (2004). Beachcomber's Guide to Gulf Coast Marine Life: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida (3rd ed.). Taylor Trade Publications. ISBN   978-1-58979-061-2.
4. Alice Jane Lippson & Robert L. Lippson (2006). "Intertidal flats". Life in the Chesapeake Bay (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.  57–93. ISBN   978-0-8018-8338-5.
5. R. P. Cowles (1930). "A biological study of the offshore waters of Chesapeake Bay" (PDF). Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries . 46: 276–381.
6. Ruppert, Edward E.; Fox, Richard S. (1988). Seashore animals of the Southeast: a guide to common shallow-water invertebrates of the southeastern Atlantic Coast. Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN   978-0-87249-535-7.