No photo available
Purple hermit crab
Coenobita brevimanus
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 208656, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Purple hermit crab
- Scientific
- Coenobita brevimanus
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Depth and habitat
- Shore: beaches, rocks and coastal vegetation at and above the high-tide line; adults live on land and return to the sea to release larvae
- IUCN status
- NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)
Description
The purple hermit crab is a large land hermit crab, often purple to brown, with a very large, purple left claw. It lives further inland than most land hermit crabs, in coastal scrub and forest, and needs a heavy snail shell. It returns to the sea to release its larvae.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=8); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=46, 40 observers); literature records via OBIS.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Coenobita-brevimanus.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=208656
- inaturalist.org /taxa/123359
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Coenobita_brevimanus_002.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.