Chilean Hermit Crab
Amazing fact
The Chilean hermit crab has been found carrying a snail shell with snail flesh still attached.
日本甲殻類学会
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The Chilean hermit crab has been found carrying a snail shell with snail flesh still attached.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Chilean Hermit Crab
- Scientific name
- Diogenes edwardsii
- Japanese name
- トゲツノヤドカリ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Malacostraca
- Order
- Decapoda
- Family
- Diogenidae
- Genus
- Diogenes
A hermit crab of sandy bottoms, found from Niigata and Miyagi south to Kyushu, and in Hong Kong.
It keeps a sea anemone, called yadokari-kotei-isoginchaku in Japanese, attached to its claw.
It deftly moves its feather-like antennae to catch plankton and other bits drifting in the water, and eats them.
Basic data
- Diet
- Suspended matter in the water and plankton
- Range
- South of Niigata and Miyagi to Kyushu, and Hong Kong
Where the Chilean Hermit Crab has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- トゲツノヤドカリ
- 简体中文
- 艾氏活额寄居蟹
- 繁體中文
- 艾氏活額寄居蟹
- 한국어
- 넓적왼손집게
- Español
- Cangrejo ermitaño
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — トゲツノヤドカリChecked: 2026-11-04
- 日本甲殻類学会 — 巻貝の身を付着させた貝殻を持つヤドカリChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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