A Hermit Crab New to Britain

Abstract

IT is of interest to record the occurrence on the shores of the Isles of Scilly of a hermit crab new to Britain. During the course of a collecting trip with my students to Porth Hellick, on the south-east corner of St. Mary's, in September of 1962 my attention was attracted by a small hermit crab with brilliant violet antennæ. Being unable to determine it to my satisfaction, I sent it to Dr. I. Gordon at the British Museum (Natural History), who identified it as a male Catapaguroides timidus (Roux), a species which she knew well in the Mediterranean. I have now taken a second male of the species, confirmed by Dr. R. W. Ingle, of the British Museum, this time from a bay near Gulf Rock at the south-west tip of the island of Bryher (Isles of Scilly). The two records, from widely separated localities among the islands and at an interval of two years, coupled with the fact that no systematic search has been undertaken in the interim, suggest that the species is established there.