---
title: "Tawny Hermit Crab"
description: "Coenobita rugosus — Other animals. Coenobita rugosus is a species of land hermit crab native to Indonesia, Australia and the east African coast to the south west Pacific."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/tawny-hermit-crab
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Tawny Hermit Crab

> Coenobita rugosus — Other animals. Coenobita rugosus is a species of land hermit crab native to Indonesia, Australia and the east African coast to the south west Pacific.

- Scientific name: *Coenobita rugosus*
- Category: `other` (Other animals)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 6813
- Wikidata: [Q2261943](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2261943)
- iNaturalist taxon: [123362](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/123362)

## Names

- en: Tawny Hermit Crab
- fr: Cénobite stridulant

## Countries with the most observations

TW (1153), TH (641), ID (472), JP (459), MV (400), LK (323), FJ (282), PH (258), PF (197), IN (189), MY (163), GU (111)

## Summary

Coenobita rugosus is a species of land hermit crab native to Indonesia, Australia and the east African coast to the south west Pacific.
C. rugosus has four walking legs, a small pincer, a large pincer, and antennae. When threatened C. rugosus is able to make a 'chirping' sound by rubbing its large pincer against its shell as a stridulatory apparatus.
C. rugosus vary in colour depending on nutritional intake and common colours include green, brown and tan, but black, white, pink, and blue have also been observed. They can be differentiated from other species of land hermit crabs by the pronounced striations (stitch…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenobita_rugosus

## Photo

![Tawny Hermit Crab](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/tawny-hermit-crab/medium.jpg)

Photo: Zoltán Stekkelpak · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/153056405

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/tawny-hermit-crab?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).