But this animal does not live alone in this asylum. He is not so much of an anchorite as he appears to be, for by his side an annelid usually instals himself as a messmate, which forms with the Pagurus one of the most terrible associations that are known. This annelid is a long worm, like all the nereids, whose supple and undulating body is armed along its sides with arrows, lances, pikes, and poniards, the wounds of which are always dangerous. It is a living panoply which glides furtively into the enemy’s camp without giving the alarm.
When a pagurus is on the march it resembles a nest of pirates, who never cease their exploits till all has been ravaged around them. This shell is so innocent in its appearance, that it introduces itself everywhere without provoking the least suspicion. It is usually covered with a colony of Hydractiniæ, and in the interior, Peltogasters,
Lyriopes, and other crustaceans often establish themselves. The paguri are not messmates of an ordinary kind, for they inhabit only a deserted shell. They are spread over all seas. They are found in the Mediterranean, the Northern Sea, on the coasts of the Pacific, of New Zealand, and of the East Indian islands: thirty species and even more have been inserted in the catalogue of crustaceans.
Naturalists have given the name of Cenobitæ to some pagurians inhabiting the seas of warmer latitudes; these have an abdomen like the pagurus, antennæ like the Birgus, and like it they inhabit shells. The Cenobita Diogenes is a species found in the Antilles.
Other pagurians, the Birgi, grow very large, and conceal their abdomen no longer in a shell, but in the crevices of the rocks, as lobsters do at the moulting time, to protect their body while deprived of their defensive armour. In the East Indies they remain on land, and even climb into trees. They have so much strength in their pincers, that Rumphius relates of one of these crustaceans, that, while stretched on a branch of a tree, it raised a goat by the ears.
Side by side with the pagurians which instal themselves in a shell with thick and completely opaque walls, we recognize crustaceans of the order of amphipods, the Phronimæ, which choose for themselves not an abandoned hovel, but a veritable crystal palace, and take possession of it without inquiring whether or no it is inhabited. The daylight penetrates through the walls of their dwellings, and it can scarcely be discerned in the water whether or no their body is protected by a covering. They usually take the dwelling of a Salpa, a
Beroë, or a Pyrosoma, and from within this lodging they give themselves up to the pleasures of fishing.
The Phronima sedentaria which lodges with the salpa seems to be scattered over the warm seas of both hemispheres. For the honour of the species, the females alone seek the assistance of their neighbours, without at the same time abandoning their characteristic robe. The sexes differ little from each other except in size, in the abdomen, and in the antennæ. Maury has described certain amphipod crustaceans which also inhabit the Salpæ.
Another phronima described by Professor Claus, the Phronima elongata, lives in the same manner; but instead of occupying a living house, it generally seeks an empty lodging, in which it establishes itself like a pagurus.
The “Bernard the Hermit” of the Marseillaise fishermen, the Pyades, becomes the messmate of an anemone which Dugès has called Actinia parasitica. According to the observations of the learned professor at Montpelier, the mouth of this anemone is always situated opposite to that of the crustacean, to take advantage of the morsels which escape from his pincers. Both of them profit by this association; and the opening of the shell is prolonged by a horny expansion furnished by the foot of the actinia.