Australian land hermit crab Australian land hermit crab The Australian land hermit crab ("Coenobita variabilis") is a terrestrial hermit crab species, native to Australia. It is a nocturnal, omnivorous crustacean. They are gregarious and thrive in tropical areas near water. The Australian land hermit crab is endemic to northern parts of Australia including northern Western Australia, Northern Territory and northern Queensland. The Australian land hermit crab ("Coenobita variabilis") reaches a carapace length of . They closely resemble the Pacific hermit crab ("Coenobita compressus") in appearance and they both have a shortened aquatic development stage. Australian hermit crabs are light brown to pale brown in
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