Hermit crab gives rise to the popular name "hermit crab", by analogy to a hermit who lives alone. Several hermit crab species, both terrestrial and marine, have been observed forming a vacancy chain to exchange shells. When an individual crab finds a new empty shell it will leave its own shell and inspect the vacant shell for size. If the shell is found to be too large, the crab goes back to its own shell and then waits by the vacant shell for up to 8 hours. As new crabs arrive they also inspect the shell and, if it is too big,
Stripe-throated hermit been considered a subspecies of the little hermit ("P. longuemareus"), but morphological data suggest it may be closer to the grey-chinned hermit ("P. griseolaris"). At present most, if not all, major authorities accept the split (SACC, the Clements check list, the Howard & Moore check list, etc.). It has been suggested that the mainly Central American taxon "saturatus", which typically is considered a subspecies of "P. striigularis", may deserve species status, in which case it would become the dusky hermit or Boucard's hermit ("P. saturatus"). The taxon "adolphi" is considered a junior synonym of "saturatus" by most authorities. It occurs