Note on the Habits of Hermit Crabs. 63 



this has often been observed), it is plain that they have also 

 the power to take them from living occupants in certain 

 cases. It is, I think, not a tenable hypothesis that the 

 members of the equi-chelate genera are alone capable of 

 such high-handed procedure. That the hermit crabs limit 

 themselves to empty shells is a statement which, once made, 

 has probably been handed down in the text-books, without 

 verification, as a sort of tradition. 



I may remark that the hermit crab (Glibanarius bar- 

 batus) which furnished this interesting observation has not 

 been recorded before from Australia, It was described and 

 figured by Dr. Heller as a New Zealand species in the 

 Voyage of the " Novara" 1865/" The distinguishing pecu- 

 liarities are the equal chelse, which, with the second and 

 third pairs of legs, are densely pilose ; the long slender eyes 

 reaching beyond the peduncles of the antennas ; and the 

 smooth gastric region of the carapace, rounded in front, 

 narrowed and truncate behind. 



* Crustacea, p. 90, pi. vii., fig. 5. 



