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Giant Hermit Crab
Petrochirus diogenes
Petrochirus diogenes is a giant marine hermit crab. This species lives in the Caribbean Sea, and often inhabits conch shells. This species of hermit crab is large enough that it can inhabit a fully grown shell of Lobatus gigas. It will attack and eat a conch, thus obtaining a meal and a shell. It was originally described by Carl Linnaeus as Cancer diogenes; the specific epithet honours Diogenes of Sinope.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Petrochirus diogenes in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 260326.