Wanderlust World Wanderlust World This crab, which reaches a smaller-than-average length of 1 inch or less, belongs to the genus Pagurus, whose members have unequally sized claws. The long-wristed hermit crab's right claw is noticeably larger and longer than its left. These crabs, also known as long-armed hermit crabs, range in color from cream to gray to brown. Long-wristed hermit crabs can regenerate as many as four lost limbs. They're omnivores, eating both decaying plant and animal matter.
The striped hermit crab has equally sized claws covered in spines, hairs and bulbous blue nodes. One of the largest hermit crabs on Pawleys Island, it can grow to 3 inches in length. Also called the thinstripe hermit crab, the animal's claws reveal "teeth" when open. The crab is green or brown, with gray or white stripes lining its legs, and lives mostly in 3.5-inch shells from the whelk and conch species. Like many other hermit crabs, the striped, which belongs to the genus Clibanarius, lives on scavenged plant and animal material.
This oblong crab reaches about 1 ¼ inch in length, ranges in color from off-white to tan or gray, and has brown eye stalks. Like the long-wristed hermit crab, the flat-clawed variety has a larger right pincer. The flat-clawed hermit crab gravitates toward the discarded shells of moon snails and large whelks and frequently shares a home with the zebra flatworm. It eats algae, and occasionally, other hermit crabs.
To see hermit crabs on Pawleys Island, visit when the morning tide ebbs and exposes the muddy, grassy salt flats around the inlet creek's mouth. Visitors often see hermit crabs scurrying toward the surf as the tide subsides. Stands of sea grass along the creek's edge offer especially good viewing sites for hermit crabs. Sheltered beaches, rock jetties and even water to a depth of 150 feet also harbor hermit crabs on and around Pawleys Island. The striped hermit crab is easiest to see on exposed beaches, because it handles being dry better than other varieties. Flat-clawed crabs stay at the water's edge during low tide and also live in salty estuaries.