Digestive Structure
The thinstripe hermit crab eats using its claws, also know as chelipeds, and maxillipeds, which are appendages near the mouth. The food then goes through it's mouths, down the oesophagus, and through the guts. The waste is either passed as urine through the antennal glans or as feces through the telson and into the shell. The hermit crab moves around it abdomen until the waste is bumped out of the shell.
Circulatory System
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The thinstripe hermit crab does not have a heart, it has an open circulatory system. It is called an open circulatory system because unlike a human circulatory system, where blood flows in a closed loop, vessels pump blood into sinuses and cavities in the body.
Respiratory Mechanism
The thinstripe hermit crab uses gills as its primary respiratory mechanism. It starts its life of in the water where its gills take the oxygen out of the water to breath, but as it grows and moves on land their gills change, allowing them to breathe air. They must be kept moist for the hermit crab to live. The moisture out of the air and the water that accumulates in the shell are what helps lubricate the gills and keeps the hermit crab breathing and alive. |