I can only HOPE to be eaten by hermit crabs.

We just bought hermit crabs for the kids. We purchased four because apparently they're not really hermits at all; they travel in large groups, even hundreds, on the beaches of Central America. They climb on each other, wiggle their antennae in each other's faces, steal things and hide them, pry other crabs out of their shells and force a swap, and engage in all sorts of other wacky hijinks social hierarchical behavior. Also they chirp. And a couple of them will very nearly launch themselves out of their shells when you pick them up.

We've been reading The Hobbit to the kids, so the kids named them, in order of size: Bombur (pictured above), Fili, Kili, and Bilbo.

There's endless information about them online: what shells they prefer (murex or apple snails apparently), what they'll eat (apparently anything), etc. Reading about hermit crabs led to reading about the biggest hermit crab of all, Birgus latro, the coconut crab or robber crab, which is HUGE - the largest arthropod on land.

Photo by fearlessRich

It doesn't even bother with a shell (only their young do), can break open coconuts, likes to steal and hide shiny things like pots and pans from people's houses in the tropics, and ate Amelia Earhart.

DID I MENTION AMELIA EARHART WAS EATEN BY CRABS.

Or rather her remains or bones may have been eaten or hidden after she succumbed and died while marooned on the island of Pacific island of Nikumaroro. Some Caucasian female bones were found among the giant coconut crabs in the 1940's, and in 2009 an expedition found a US-made zipper pull, a heel of a size 9 1930's-era Cat's Paw women's boot (check those out, they're pretty sweet), a navigational sextet, and some Plexiglas and other possible plane parts.

Nikumaroro

That's the interwebz for ya. You just want to find out how to set up a hermit crab terrarium, and you somehow spend hours reading about 1930s aviators, their footwear, and the crustaceans that ate them.