Flatclaw hermit

About this species

Pagurus pollicaris is a hermit crab commonly found along the Atlantic coast of North America from New Brunswick to the Gulf of Mexico. It is known by a number of common names, including gray hermit crab, flat-clawed hermit crab, flatclaw hermit crab, shield hermit crab, thumb-clawed hermit crab, broad-clawed hermit crab, and warty hermit crab.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Pagurus pollicaris”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 225 records
February: 204 records
March: 296 records
April: 338 records
May: 372 records
June: 423 records
July: 511 records
August: 506 records
September: 408 records
October: 427 records
November: 366 records
December: 291 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–4 m · Deepest record: 91.4 m

0–10 m: 2,634 records
10–20 m: 68 records
20–30 m: 23 records
30–40 m: 15 records
40–50 m: 5 records
50–60 m: 2 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 2 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 12–27 °C

10–12 °C: 2 records
12–14 °C: 4 records
14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 5 records
18–20 °C: 4 records
20–22 °C: 2 records
22–24 °C: 223 records
24–26 °C: 302 records
26–28 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Sinéad Tuttle-Lerner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sinéad Tuttle-Lerner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) harrier, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) inbetweenbays, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sawyer Baran, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ryan Watson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Meghan Cassidy, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Flatclaw hermit, Broad-clawed Hermit Crab, Flat-clawed Hermit Crab, flatclaw hermit, Flatclaw Hermit, Gray Hermit Crab, Shield Hermit Crab, Thumb-clawed Hermit Crab, Warty Hermit Crab

Other scientific names: Eupagurus (Eupagurus) floridanus, Pagurus floridanus

Similar species

Long-clawed hermit crab
Pagurus longicarpus
Pagurus filholi
Pagurus lanuginosus
Pagurus minutus
New Zealand Hermit Crab
Pagurus novizealandiae
Pagurus albidianthus

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).
3,267 open-data records from 1879 to 2024.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.