Coenobita cavipes
- Water temperature26–29 °C
- Best monthsJune, August, and September
- How commonOccasional
Photo credit: (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
About this species
Coenobita cavipes is a species of land hermit crab native to the eastern parts of Africa, the Indonesia, Philippines, China, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Polynesia, and Micronesia. While these hermit crabs are terrestrial, they prefer to reside near the shores for access of both water and land.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Coenobita cavipes”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
Loading the map
Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 14 records
- February: 20 records
- March: 30 records
- April: 77 records
- May: 83 records
- June: 145 records
- July: 123 records
- August: 129 records
- September: 127 records
- October: 81 records
- November: 37 records
- December: 23 records
Depth and water temperature
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 26–29 °C
Photos
(c) rjtizard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Cheng-Te Hsu, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Yung-Lun Lin, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
Names and classification
Names in 2 more languages
- Japanese
- オカヤドカリ
- Simplified Chinese
- 凹足陸寄居蟹
Other scientific names: Cenobita cavipes, Coenobita Baltzeri
Similar species
Indo hermit crabCoenobita brevimanus
Purple land hermit crabCoenobita perlatus
Ruggie hermit crabCoenobita rugosus
Purple Indonesian Hermit CrabCoenobita violascens
Red Sea Land Hermit CrabCoenobita scaevola
Aussie hermit crabCoenobita variabilis
Sources and credits
Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).
- Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
- Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 165 open-data records from 1858 to 2010.
- Species data updated November 1, 2026.
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