Ten-cent crabs and hermit crabs

We observed two different types of crabs on the beach at Grand Isle, in close proximity but living very different lifestyles. The "ten-cent crabs", so designated because they were about the span of a dime, survive through a combination of speed, camouflage, and burrowing. (The crab is at five o'clock relative to the dime in each of these photos.)

[Some of the burrows, with crab tracks leading to piles of jettisoned sand, were quite aesthetically pleasing.]

The hermit crabs, of course, take their protection from their borrowed shells (mostly whelks and periwinkles) and from the tidal pool in which they lived. Speed is decidedly not their forté.

[Hermit crab in situ, carrying a whelk shell.]

[Hermit crabs in periwinkle shells (the more common housing here), held by Jessica and Heather.]