Thanks for the explanation. Boy, was I way off base. My mind didn't even go to the hermit crabs. They are the little villains of my drift collecting. It seems each time I find a really "fresh" shell, I find one of these guys inside. I generally leave the shells and hope to find another good shell soon.

---- Allen Aigen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

=============


Dale,
Go into shallow water and if you see an area where the snails seem to move quickly, grab one and you will see the hermit crab pull itself into the shell, sometimes with one large claw acting like an operculum.  Hermit crabs go from land to rather deep water, and they evolved to fit into empty snail shells.  Sometimes a shell that was used as a home for a long time by a crab (a crabbed shell) will show characteristic wear, or a rough covering from epizoans that will colonize a crabbed shell to share a free ride and bits of food.  Crabbed shells often show up in baited traps (like for lobsters) where the live gastropod shell would not go.
Allen Aigen
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Â
From: Dale Snyder <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] "Rare Shells"

I know this sounds ignorant, but I want to be sure my understanding of "crabbed"Â  is correct. When you use this term, are you saying it was caught while fishing for crabs? Or are you saying crabs had damaged it, or something else?

Although I've been collecting shells among beach drift for many years, I'm not familiar with the jargon you more experienced and educated collectors use.

---- Wayne Harland <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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Conus lightbourni, Petuch, 1986.  I don't know of a live taken specimen, all were crabbed specimens taken from very deep water off Bermuda.

Wayne

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