Hermit crabs socialize to evict their neighbors

A new study of terrestrial hermit crabs in Costa Rica suggests that they socialize – unlike solitary marine hermit crabs – in order to steal shells from one another. Land crabs remodel and expand their shells, but to move up as they get larger, they must gather around other crabs to find someone to evict. Typically, crabs line up so that, once one crab is wrenched from its home, everyone can simultaneously acquire a larger abode.

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