Blueberry Hermit Crab

The blueberry hermit crab is a terrestrial hermit crab endemic to tropical and subtropical islands in the North Pacific, including Kikaijima Island, the Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa, and the Boso Peninsula in Japan, growing to 3 to 4 centimeters in shield length and 7 to 10 centimeters overall, with blue and purple coloring and white or cream eyestalks. It favors beaches with rocky crevices or shrubbery and rocky tidepools and supratidal zones in humid temperatures of 27 to 29 degrees Celsius, and although it lives on land it must return to the ocean to reproduce, with a breeding season lasting as long as three and a half to four months from late May to mid or late September. Its conservation status has not been formally determined, but surveys show low population numbers, and the pet trade poses a concern because most blueberry hermit crabs sold are wild caught.