the.com/hermitcrab
A soft-bodied renter that wears the housing market on its back.
means A crustacean with a vulnerable abdomen that protects itself by living inside abandoned snail shells, upgrading to bigger ones as it grows.
from Hermit from the Greek eremites, desert-dweller, for its lone life tucked in a borrowed cell; crab from the Old English crabba, the scuttler.
Housing chainsThey queue by size to swap shells in order.
Not hermitsWild colonies can crowd dozens together.
Long-livedSome species survive over thirty years.