Dardanus megistos

Dardanus megistos, the white-spotted hermit crab or spotted hermit crab, is a large hermit crab in the family Diogenidae, found across the Indo-Pacific from East Africa to the South China Sea, Australia and Hawaii. It lives on coral reefs, in lagoons, on rocky platforms and over sand and seagrass beds, from the shoreline down to about 50 metres. An adult can reach roughly 20 centimetres in body length. Its body is bright red and covered in long, coarse dark red hairs, with small white eyespots ringed in black, long white antennules and stalked green-brown eyes. As in all hermit crabs the soft, spiral abdomen is tucked inside the empty shell of a gastropod, so only the front of the body and the first three pairs of legs show, and the left claw is larger than the right. It is an opportunistic omnivore that feeds mainly on small invertebrates such as worms and molluscs, and may live up to 30 years. The genus name recalls Dardanus, a son of Zeus in Greek myth, and the species name means largest.