Pagurus samuelisPHYLUM COMMON NAME

ARTHROPODA BLUEBAND HERMIT CRAB

LOCATION

From Alaska to Baja, California,

and from the Bering Strait to

Northern Japan

HABITAT

This hermit crab is found in the

CHARACTERISTICS
rocky intertidal and kelp forests on

both exposed and protected bright blue bands encircling the

shorelines on the outercoast. It can tips of its walking legs, and its

be abundant, and may be found in red unbanded antennae. The

tidepools in the mid and low body and claws are olive green.

intertidal.
 REPRODUCTION

During courtship, male grasps female's shell and

may carry her around for a day or longer,

occasionally knocking his shell repeatedly

against hers. Mating is brief (only a few seconds;

both animals must nearly leave their shells to

mate).

FOOD HABITS FEEDING BEHAVIOR:

Adults scavenge algae, Hermit crabs are scavengers

especially Macrocystis pyrifera and and do not kill snails to use the

dead animal matter. shell.

ECOSYSTEM ROLES

Play an important role as active carrion

scavengers in intertidal ecosystems.

 Acartia clausi
PHYLUM COMMON NAME
ARTHROPODA NO COMMON NAME

STATUS
NOT LISTED BY THE IUCN

LOCATION

Cosmopolitan in temperate and

subtropical waters.
HABITAT
FOOD HABITS
Found in near surface depths

0-164 ft (0-50 m), in shallow Mostly herbivorous; diet includes wide

coastal waters and range of minute unicellular

embayments; rarely in open phytoplankton such as diatoms,

oceanic waters. coccolithophores, and dinofla-

gellates, and ciliate protists. Selective

in choice of food particle type.

 REPRODUCTION
Mating takes place in water column. Mating behavior is not known, but

probably involves male detection of pheromone trail laid down by female.

Male grasps female using left fifth leg, and transfers single spermatophore

with tip of right leg.

CHARACTERISTICS
Body length 0.045-0.048 in for female and 0.039-0.042 in for male. Body gymnoplean,

with somewhat slender prosome and short, slender urosome of three segments.

Antennules long, indistinctly 18-segmented in female; male antennule geniculate on right

side only. Antenna with four-segmented exopod and with 6 to 8 supernumerary setae on

allobasal segment. Maxillipeds reduced distally. Swimming legs 1-4 all biramous, with

three-segmented exopods and two-segmented endopods; fifth legs reduced in female,

unira-mous ending in tapering spinous process. Male fifth legs asymmetrical, specialized

for grasping female and transferring spermatophore during mating.

ECOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE
Plays vital role in economy of coastal seas; forms middle link in food

chain leading from phytoplankton up to commercially important fish

species in estuarine fish spawning grounds and in coastal waters.

 Sacculina carcini
PHYLUM COMMON NAME
ARTHROPODA CRAB HACKER BARNACLE

STATUS
NONE

LOCATION
Recorded in the Shetlands, St Andrew's Bay,

Cullercoats Coast, East Anglia, Dorset and

CHARACTERISTICS Devon, north and south Wales, Morecambe

Bay, Isle of Man, the west coast of Scotland,

Sacculina carcini is an internal parasite
and near Belfast in Northern Ireland.
of swimming crabs, characterised by a

cream-brownish, oval externa. The

HABITAT
mantle opening is slightly raised, small

and placed almost opposite the stalk. lives in a marine environment. During the

The externa, reaching 2.5 cm in width, brief larval period, S. carcini is pelagic,

protudes from underneath the abdomen but as an adult, it lives as a parasite within

of the host. a crab.

 REPRODUCTION FOOD HABITS
a female S. carcini has two males which live Sacculina carcini is entirely parasitic,

off of it and constantly fertilizes it. The relying on its host for nutrition. Its

female then produces hundreds of eggs a day, host secretes nutrients, which it

which incubate in the abdomen of the host. absorbs.

ECOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE
Sacculina carcini has been considered as a means of controlling

invasive crab species, but due to low host specificity it also seems to

damage non-invasive crab populations. As such, it is not yet known

whether or not S. carcini will be an appropriate invasive species

control.

ECOSYSTEM ROLES
Sacculina carcini is a parasite on a wide variety of crab species, and causes

decreased fertility in infected crabs. Since Carcinus maenas is a primary host, S.

carcini works to somewhat control the green crab population. Currently S.

carcini is being considered whether it is an effective invasive species regulatory

control. In some populations, S. carcini can render up 50% of the crab population

infertile, so in theory, S. carcini can have an important effect on the ecosystem

balance.
WORKS CITED
Fretwell, K. (2017). Blueband hermit crab * Pagurus samuelis. Retrieved from
Biodiversity of Central Coast: https://www.centralcoastbiodiversity.org/blueband-
hermit-bull-pagurus-samuelis.html

Jeng, W. (2011). Sacculina carcini. Retrieved August 2020, from Animal Diversity
Web: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sacculina_carcini/

Hosie, A. (2008, December 23). Crab hacker barnacle (Sacculina carcini). Retrieved
August 2020, from MarLIN: https://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/detail/2233