You might think all beauty contest winners claw their way to the top. But in Ocean City, N.J., costumed contestants literally do just that when the best-dressed hermit crabs in town vie for the title of Miss Crustacean in the annual Hermit Crab Beauty Contest. Don't snicker. I wouldn't stand in front of a hermit crab in its mad scramble back to the beach!

The annual event has drawn entries with unlikely names such as Crabzilla and Cleopatra Crab competing for the title on the city's two-mile boardwalk.

Hermit crabs normally live near shallow waters and some tropical species live on land. They have hard exoskeletons that protect all their body parts except their abdomens.

They prefer to live in groups and the ocean floor may look like a modern suburban housing development when they gather where food is as abundant as a supermarket. Others may make their homes by the seashore in pools of water leftover by the retreating tide. Some live most of the time on land in shells abandoned by land snails.

Learn more about hermit crabs at the Mystic Aquarium Institute for Exploration online at www.mysticaquarium.org and make your own hermit crab with an idea I found in the book Mary Beth's Crafty Kids Fun Summer Crafts.

Supplies you will need:

One seashell with a

-inch opening.

Clay in orange, white, black, blue and red.

2 1½-inch cotter or eye pins.

Toothpicks.

Butter or plastic knife.

Roll the orange clay into a 1-inch ball and press it into the opening of the shell.

Roll the blue clay into a ½-inch ball and flatten it into a circular shape about

-inch thick. Divide it in two with a butter or plastic knife. Pull the pointed ends out and around to form claws and mount the round sides by pressing them beneath the shell so the claws protrude.

To make eyes, roll a small amount of white clay into two balls and mount them by gently flattening them on the front of the orange ball with your thumb. Make two smaller pieces of black clay and place them inside the white circles.

For the eyelids, flatten a small ball of blue clay, cut it in half and mount it over the eyes. Use a toothpick to imprint eyelashes.

Roll a small piece of red clay into a ball and gently press it into the clay under the eyes leaving it in the ball shape. Roll a small piece of black clay into a tiny tube shape and attach under the nose for a mouth. Use the toothpick to make freckles on the crab's cheeks.

Place two cotter or eye pins on top of the head for antennae.