The Hairy Red Crab

   Since returning from Bali, we have been enjoying some relatively cool dry weather here in Kona.  Of course, there is nothing like returning from Indonesia to make where ever you are feel cool and dry.  We have not been snorkeling since our return, in large part because, before we could get our feet

Prior to the onset of Bali Belly, Sandra could shop and dance.

under us, we both became ill.  Sandra got a case of Bali Belly.  To my dismay, this seems to have

curtailed her belly dancing, at least for this week.  I, not wanting to be outdone, got a whopping good case of gout.  I am barely able to hobble to the computer to write this blog.  And suffice it to say, I, too, am not belly dancing. 

   As I have been sitting around with my leg elevated, I have been thinking about the hermit crabs we saw in Bali.  The water was delightfully warm there and Sandra and I spent many hours out on the shallow reefs, which were ideal for hermit hunting.  Over these many halcyon hours, we saw a total of ten individual hermit crabs.  Upon our return, with a moderate amount of scholarship, I was able to identify all ten hermit crabs that we saw.  John Hoover's critter book was a help, but, as it turned out, not a single one of these was a crab species found here in Hawaii. This is a little surprising because crabs seem to be more widely distributed than fish and most of the hermit crabs found in Hawaii are found throughout the Pacific, many extending into the Indian Ocean.   As a consequence, I was forced to scour the internet for sites showing pictures of hermit

Calcinus minutus   Keahi, the Fiery Hermit Crab   Menangen Island 2017

crabs of Indonesia.  Isn't it interesting that a topic so esoteric would be covered on the net?  A site which I found most useful, and will refer to later in this rambling discourse, is Diverosa:

  http://www.diverosa.com/categories/Hermitcrabs.htm

   In the event that the following dialogue becomes too confusing, you may want to refer to that link.  Clearly, the boys and girls at Diverosa are as hung up on hermits as yours truly.

   By comparison with the hermit crabs, possibly fifteen percent of the fish species we saw in Bali are found in Hawaii, as well.  As you will recall, because Hawaii is so widely separated from other islands in the Pacific (take that, Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions) we are blessed with more than our fair share of endemic species.  Roughly 30 percent of our commonly seen reef fish are endemic, but that still leaves a large number that are seen regularly at a considerable distance from these Very

Ca. Gaimardii  Blue Eyes on Apricot Stalks

Sandwich Islands.

   Unlike hermits in Hawaii, the three species of hermit crabs that we found in Bali did not seem to show any preference for habitat, occurring in areas of rich coral growth, coral rubble and muddy weeds.  Additionally, as you will see, they did not seem to show any strong preference for type of shell.  In Hawaii, in a given location, I can frequently predict what species of hermit is living in a given shell. I have no idea why Indonesian hermit crabs are so lacking in discretion.

   Of the ten individuals we saw, three were of a species that we had seen on previous trips to Bali.  This is a relatively small white crab with orange tips, Calcinus minutus, known to some as the Fiery Hermit Crab.  The scientific name smacks of insignificance, but at least by the standards of the genus Calcinus, he is a modestly impressive hermit crab.  If he lived in Hawaii, we would have to call hm Keahi.  This under utilized Hawaiian name means "Man of Fire" and I am attempting to apply it to my grandson Colsen.  We can now see how this may relate to his ever so occasional crabbiness.   But I digress.

Blood Hermit Crab  December 2013, Kahalu'u Bay, Big Island

   Hopefully you remember from previous blogs that a major key to identifying hermit crabs is  the color of the eyes and the eye stalks.  Carcinologists (which is what scientists who study crabs acually call themselves),  when describing a hermit crab, actually draw large pictures of the eye stalks by hand.  In the case of minutus here, its white stalks and black eyes, simple and elegant. Unlike those that are to follow, this crab is easily named on sight.

   The second species, Calcinus gaimardii, was also seen three times and in a full variety of habitats. He was a little more evasive and our last sighting had to rely on a very poor picture, (hold the camera near the hiding crab, focus and hope for the best)  but the eyes gave him away.  And just look at those peepers: apricot colored stalks with two tones of blue stripes, capped off handsomely with bright blue eyes.   There is a hermit in Hawaii, the Argus Hermit Crab, Ca. argus, (which I have never been lucky enough to see) that looks a lot like Gaimard's Hermit,  but with pink stalks with a white band.  Hoover says it is distributed in the Indo- Pacific, but I wonder, given the similarity to the Gaimard's, if it is found in Bali.   If one can draw a conclusion from the pictures on their site, the boys at Diverosa don't seem to think so.

Red Hairy Hermit Crab,  D. lagopodes  In a Triton   Menangen Island  2017

    The last crab we will discuss is one you have met previously in the blog, the Hairy Red Hermit, Dardanus lagopodes.  This sasquatch of a crab comes from the only genus that I have recorded here in Hawaii that contains truly hairy hermits.  Prior to this trip to Bali, my sole hairy hermit was the Bloody Hermit Crab, D. sanguinocarpus.   If you follow the blog, you will know that the Bloody Hermit is one of my favorites. 

    We see him ever so occasionally in Kona at two locations.  The first is in the small patch of coral right by the pier.  Thus, Señor Sanguinocarpus lives in coral that grows beneath the spot used by the tenders from the cruise ships.  In a way, Kailua Kona is running a little experiment and demonstrating rather clearly that coral is not especially harmed by regular exposure of a variety of hydrocarbons associated with diesel engines.  And the bloody hermit lives there in spite of those cruise ship tenders.  In that thirty foot long patch of coral I have seen at least three Bloody Hermits and all were wearing long, smooth miter shells.  These shells were so large that one could not imagine that locomotion was possible.  By moving one of the crabs and

Red Hairy Hermit Crab, D. lagopodes, in a long, smooth miter shell  Bali  2017

coming back the next day, I was able to show that the stout fellow could lug that cumbersome edifice over twenty feet in as many hours and back up to the top of the coral, an ascent of perhaps two meters.  Woof!

   The second location where we have recorded the Bloody Hermit is good ol' K Bay.  We have seen him at least four times at Kahalu'u and every time he was living in a triton shell (and there he kept her very well).   So both locations where we see the Hawaiian Dardanus have been in peaceful, protected waters. 

    Being a lister of the first water, I really wanted all four of these red hairy hermits to be different species.  On my preliminary list I named them black hairy hermit, fuzzy hermit, etc. And in fact, I identified the very last hermit we saw in Bali as a bloody hermit crab.  When we got back to the library, this preliminary identification was debunked.   John Hoover's critter book points out that the bloody hermit is found only on other islands near to Hawaii,  not in the west Pacific and certainly not in the Indian Ocean.

D. lagopodes in a ribbed miter impersonates sanguinocarpus

    As we promised, it came down to eye stalks.  Our picture from K Bay shows the bloody hermit with his tan eye stalks and discrete terminal yellow ring.  in these several pictures of lagopodes, you note pearly gray eye stalks and a a large yellow ring with a yellow nipple extending onto the eye.Nevertheless, if you look at the pictures on Diverosa and you don't make too big a deal out of the eye stalks, you will see two examples from Indonesia that could pass as sanguinocarpus.

    When all was said and done, we saw D. lagopodes on Menangen Island in a situation very much like Paul Allen's Reef, which is to say, exposed to the surf.  He was strolling around in a well worn triton shell.

   The other three sightings were in the peaceful waters of Pemuteran Bay.  The biggest and hairiest of this bunch was in a large miter shell wedged so solidly into the rubble that, much like the giant clams

Fuzzy   Dardanus lagopodes, Hairy Red Hermit Crab.  Weedy Pirates, Pemuteran  2017

that live in the substrate, it appeared to be part of the reef.  One has to assume that at some point the crab moved that shell.  But maybe not.

   The last two of these lagopodes were found on the sandy, muddy bottom, not associated with coral or even rubble.   This is dramatically different from the habitat in which we would expect to find a bloody hermit.   In the case of the crab that so convincingly imitated the blood crab, he is living in a ribbed miter.  the last one I am showing you I hopefully called a fuzzy hermit.  While my hopes for a new species were dashed (Fuzzy is clearly lagopodes) I absolutely love the picture.  That little red point and shoot T4 can knock one out of the park if you give it a chance.  

   Well, thank God for eye stalks.  We are already missing the warm waters of the enchanted island of Bali and shivering in anticipation of what awaits us here at home in the waters of kailua Bay.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures of  the hermit crabs, and that you all have a warm and merry holiday season.

jeff

While Sandra and i were out hunting hermits, the lovely Miss Kadek was gathering flowers for our bed.