LIHU‘E — A community of small animals that live in portable houses made from seashells also live on coral reefs. They include hermit crabs and beach hoppers. The public is invited to learn more about these unique creatures Thursday when the
LIHU‘E — A community of small animals that live in portable houses made from seashells also live on coral reefs. They include hermit crabs and beach hoppers.
The public is invited to learn more about these unique creatures Thursday when the Hanapepe Public Library hosts its monthly free lecture series on the Hawaiian Marine Environment.
Ann Willow Jorgenson, a marine biology instructor and Marine Option Program co-coordinator at Kaua‘i Community College, will present The Story of the Tiny Hermit Crab, the Beach Hopper and the Perfect Seashell They Both Wanted to Call Home from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Hanapepe Public Library’s meeting room, which is located at 4490 Kona Road in Hanapepe.
“Tiny hermit crabs live alongside a unique type of beach hopper, or amphipod, and another shrimp-like animal called a tanaid,” Jorgenson said. “These creatures have taken up a lifestyle of living in small shells.”
The shells vary in color and shape and come from marine snails, which are about one-tenth of an inch long. The shells are important to the animals because they provide protection against predators, but also because they are in short supply and very hard to come by in the wild.
“These creatures must compete to secure a good seashell home,” Jorgenson said. “The hermit crab has a large claw, which gives it an advantage over the amphipod when competing for a shell. The amphipods and hermit crabs have both evolved separately over time to have a coiled body shape, which allows them to fit neatly inside a snail shell, a process called convergent evolution.”
Jorgenson said there is also an interesting relationship between the amphipod and an even smaller planktonic animal, called a copepod, which lives in the shell behind the amphipod.
The Thursday presentation is a story of the underwater community of tiny animals with its unique adaptations.
Jorgenson studied marine ecology, conservation and ocean policy at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and biological oceanography at the University of Washington.
Her graduate research focused on hermit crab community ecology in French Polynesia. Jorgenson also did research on phytoplankton and zooplankton and loves teaching marine science at KCC and mentoring student research projects.
The Hawaiian Marine Environment lecture series is sponsored by the Friends of the Hanapepe Public Library. Call 335-8418 for more information.
