0 Japanese Spider crab

 

Animal Unique | Japanese Spider crab | The Japanese spider crab is a species of marine crab that lives in the waters around Japan. Japanese spider crabs are mainly located on the southern shores of the Japanese island of Honshu from Tokyo to Kagoshima Prefecture. Rural populations are found in Iwate Prefecture and off Su-ao in Taiwan. Adults can be found at a depth of 600 meters, or as shallow as 50 meters. It has the largest leg span of all arthropods, up to 3.8 meters and weighing up to 41 pounds. It is the subject of small-scale fisheries.

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Brachyura
Superfamily:     Majoidea
Family:     Inachidae
Genus:     Macrocheira, De Haan, 1839
Species:     M. kaempferi

Japanese spider crab has eight legs, two feeding arms. The male specimen is different than the females, the arms of the male specimen, where the claws of the crab are located, the longer the legs that they use to walk.Japanese spider crab's body is mostly red with white spots on his legs. The eyes of the Japanese spider crab are located at the front, with two small horns between the eyes. These horns are shorter with age. Some Japanese spider crab attach sponges and sea anemones on their shells, like all other crabs to protect them against other predators. The Japanese spider crabs seems big, but it is a very delicate creature.

 

Japanese spider crabs are omnivorous and scavenge for food. They can eat algae, plants, mollusks and small fish, catch and tear the meat into their powerful claws. Their long legs allow them to stalk their prey very quickly and move. They move very slowly along the ocean floor, and are thus easy targets for hungry predators, large enough to fall. As a form of protection, they attach sponges and small animals for their shells to distract predators.

 

Japanese spider crabs can be found at a depth of 150m to 800m, but these crabs to go to a depth of about 200m. If the female JJapanese spider crabs need to lay their eggs, they are even at shallow depth of 50m. In recent years, the hunting of these crabs is slightly down due to a conservation program for this species to save end up in a big restaurant. The Japanese spider crab is a delicacy in some bays like Sagami and Suruga. These crabs are usually caught in the spring when they go to the shallow water to lay their eggs. Now there are some tanks where they remain living species of the Japanese Spider crabs for tourism and research.

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Detail: Japanese Spider crab

0 Mangrove Horseshoe Crab

 

Animal Unique | Mangrove Horseshoe Crab | The Mangrove horseshoe crab is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders and scorpions (all in the subphylum Chelicerata) than to crab. It is the only species in the genus Carcinoscorpius. These Mangrove horseshoe crabs can be found in the entire Asia Pacific region in shallow waters with a soft, sandy soils or extensive mudflats. The Mangrove horseshoe crab is benthopelagic, most of his life close to or at the bottom of a body of their brackish, swampy water habitats such as mangroves. 

 

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Class:     Merostomata
Order:     Xiphosura
Family:     Limulidae
Genus:     Carcinoscorpius, Pocock, 1902
Species:     C. rotundicauda

The basic body plan of a Mangrove horseshoe crab has three parts: the prosoma, the opisthosoma and telson. The prosoma is the dome-shaped part at the front. The three-spined marginally middle-called opisthosoma, and the rear unit that looks like a peak, the telson, which is commonly described as the 'tail'. Contrary to popular belief, it is used to telson itself back upright when it is tilted. The Mangrove horseshoe crab grows to 40 inches long (including tail), and his body is protected by a hard, dark brown shell. 

 

Juveniles grow about 33% larger each time they molt, and it takes almost 2 cm approximately five moults to reach young adult size. Their large eggs, which hatch into miniature versions of adults, are recorded in the upper parts of the mangroves. Males (usually much smaller than females), cling to and follow their potential partners around for long periods before egg laying. Not surprisingly, some people identify this crab with marital fidelity.

 

Mangrove horseshoe crabs are scavengers and can be found among the mangroves feed on algae, invertebrates and dead organisms. They are specially adapted to hypoxic water, hold up to 200 book gills used for breathing. The telson or tail is used to right itself when it is tilted and not as a weapon as some believe.

 

The eggs of these crabs are eaten in some areas, local people cutting open the body and eating the eggs unlaid immediately after cooking. There are some reports, but the Mangrove horseshoe crab are poisonous. The blood of the crab is important in the biomedical world as a purified version can help detect benefit rial toxins, important for disease detection and ensure the cleanliness of the equipment.

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Detail: Mangrove Horseshoe Crab

0 Atlantic Blue Crab

 

Animal Unique | Atlantic Blue Crab | The Chesapeake and Atlantic blue crab is a crustacean found in the waters of the western Atlantic, the Pacific coast of Central America and the Gulf of Mexico. Its Latin name, Callinectes sapidus (from the Greek calli = "beautiful", nectes = "swimmer", and Latin sapidus = "savory"). On the Pacific coast of Central America, Atlantic blue crab was largely ignored as a source of food and choosing the meat is considered too difficult. It is the Maryland state crustacean and the subject of an extensive fishery.

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Brachyura
Family:     Portunidae
Genus:     Callinectes
Species:     C. sapidus

The immature female Atlantic blue crab has a triangular-shaped abdomen that is well sealed against the body. The adult female abdomen is rounded and can be easily pulled from the body after the last molt. Male blue crabs (called Jimmy crabs) have brilliant blue claws and legs. Older women (sooks) can be distinguished by the bright orange tips on their claws. Males tend to be larger than females, sometimes 7 or 8 inches from shell point to point. Male blue crabs are reported to grow as big as 10 inches.

Breeding female Atlantic blue crabs carry fertilized eggs under their abdomen. The egg mass resembles a sponge, hence the term "sponge" crabs. It takes about two weeks for the eggs to mature and be released into the water to hatch. Atlantic blue crab eat small fish, oysters, mussels, snails, shrimp, worms and other crabs. They sometimes burrow into the ground with only their eyes visible stems, in wait for prey. Blue crabs are opportunistic in nature, eating whatever is available. The natural enemies of the blue crab include eels, drum, striped bass, spot, trout, some sharks, cownose rays and people.

Commercial Atlantic blue crab harvesters usually bait crab traps with oily fish, which seem to work better than other baits. Atlantic blue crabs are thought to detect and locate the source of fish oil for long distances. An important area for harvest blue crabs in North America, the Chesapeake Bay. In the Chesapeake Bay communities, they are called "Maryland crab", "hard crabs" or simply "crabs". Other crab harvests from the Delaware Bay, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and to a lesser extent, the Gulf Coast states.

Atlantic blue crab is drawn into the hard shell or soft shell forms. Hard crabs are often boiled whole and served still in their shells. The hard shell is cracked by hand or using the nut crackers. Once the shell is broken, almost the totality of the crab meat consumed. The meat in the body of the crab is thick and whitish in color, while the pieces of the legs are smaller and flakier. Meat from the two large claws is solid and more plentiful than meat found in the lower legs. Soft shell crabs are prepared in a different way, these preparations began immediately after the crabs caught. Soft shell crabs are just new melted. Crabbers will inspect their freshly caught crabs to determine which are about to molt. Those who are about ready separated from the rest of the crabs and kept in shallow tanks with running water until they molt. These crabs are worth more than the market hard shell crabs, and after cooking the entire crab, shell and all, can be consumed.

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Detail: Atlantic Blue Crab

0 Blue Swimmer Crab

 

Animal Unique | Blue Swimmer Crab |  Blue swimmer crab is also known as the flower crab, blue crab, blue manna crab or sand crab. It is a large crab found in the tidal estuaries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans (Asian coasts) and the Middle East coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The name "flower crab" is used in East Asian countries, while the last names are used in Australia. Blue swimmer crabs are widely distributed in East Africa, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. An estuarine crab, Blue swimmer crab sideways can run fast on the sandy bottom, or swim away quickly with the flat oar-like paddles on their last legs run. These belts are also efficient kick, allowing the crab quickly shuffle back into sand, leaving only the eyes and antennae are displayed.

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Brachyura
Family:     Portunidae
Genus:     Portunus
Species:     P. pelagicus

The Blue swimmer crab, as its name suggests, a swimming crab. Blue swimmer crabs are generally characterized by the fact that their last pair of legs are modified as swimming paddles. Blue swimmer crab are active swimmers but when inactive, it buried in the sediment, leaving only their eyes, antennae and gill chamber opening exposed. The males are bright blue in color with white spots and with a characteristic long chelipeds, while the females are a duller green / brown, with a more rounded shield.

Blue swimmer crab are large and beautifully colored. The shield is very broad, about twice as wide as long, covered with large granules. In adult males, the large chelipeds are three times as long as the shield. The color of the crab is mainly blue with paler spots on the top. The surface is bright white. Blue swimmer crabs are not coast, but visit shallow waters hunting for prey, such as prawns, or Semaphore and Sentinel Crabs that have not sheltered in their now submerged burrows. Blue swimmer crab are very active, fast and powerful. They catch and eat any creature they can.

Blue swimmer crab remain buried under sand or mud most of the time, especially during the day and in winter. They come out at high tide to feed on various organisms such as bivalves, fish and, to a lesser extent, macroalgae. They are excellent swimmers, largely due to a pair of flattened legs that resemble paddles. However, in contrast to another portunid crab (Scylla serrata), they can not survive for long periods out of the water.

The species is commercially important in the Indo-Pacific, where they can be sold as traditional hard shells, or "soft shelled" crabs, which are considered a delicacy in Asia. The species is highly valued as the meat is almost as sweet as the blue crab. The Blue swimmer crab is caught commercially along the coastal areas of southern Queensland accounts for about half the commercial catch. This crab is also an important part of the catch of many shrimp trawlers. These crabs are supposed to eat well with a delicate, fishy taste and fine texture.

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Detail: Blue Swimmer Crab

0 Coconut Crab

 

Animal Unique | Coconut Crab | The Coconut crab is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is known for his ability to crack coconuts with a powerful tool for content to eat. It is sometimes called the Robber crab because some coconut crabs are rumored to shiny objects such as pots and silverware from houses and tents to steal. It can be found on the islands in the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific as far east as the Gambier Islands, mirroring the distribution of the coconut palm, it is eradicated from most areas with a significant human population, including the mainland Australia and Madagascar. 

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Crustacea

Class: Malacostraca

Order: Decapoda

Superfamily: Paguroidea

Family: Coenobitidae

Genus: Birgus, Leach, 1816

Species: B. latro

Coconut crabs are considered one of the most terrestrial decapods, with most aspects of his life were associated with an earthly existence, they will drown in sea in less than one day. Coconut crabs live alone in underground burrows and rock crevices, depending on local terrain. They dig their own burrows in sand or loose soil. During the day, the animal remains hidden to reduce water loss from heat. They are sold as pets in markets such as Tokyo. The diet of Coconut crabs consists primarily of fleshy fruits, nuts and seeds, and the marrow of fallen trees. However, if they are omnivores, they consume organic materials such as turtle boy and dead animals.

Coconut crab is the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world, reports on the size of Coconut crab vary, but most sources indicate a maximum height of 40 cm, weighing 4.1 kg, and a leg span of more than 0, 91 m, with males generally are larger than females. The shield can reach a length of 78 mm and a width of 200 mm. The body of the Coconut crab, like that of all decapods, divided into a front section (cephalothorax), which has 10 legs and abdomen. The front pair of legs has large claws (claws), with left greater than right. The next two pairs, as with other hermit crabs, are large, powerful walking legs with pointed ends, allowing vertical or overhanging Coconut crabs to climb surfaces.

The fourth pair of legs is smaller with a tweezer-like claws at the end which young Coconut crabs on the inside of a shell or coconut shell to perform for the protection of grip, adults use this pair for walking and climbing. The last pair of legs is very small and is used by women to tend to their eggs and the males in mating. This last pair of legs is usually held in the scale, in the cavity in which the respiratory organs. There is some difference in color between the animals found on different islands, ranging from orange-red to purple-blue, in most regions, blue is the predominant color, but in some places, including the Seychelles, most people are red. Although Coconut crab is a derived type of hermit crab, only the young people to use salvaged snail shells to protect their soft abdomens, and adolescents sometimes use broken coconut on their bellies to protect. Unlike other hermit crabs, Coconut crab do not carry the adult shells, but instead harden their abdominal terga by depositing chitin and chalk.

The Coconut crab has a well developed sense of smell, which it uses to locate its food. The process of smelling works very differently depending on whether the smoke molecules are hydrophilic or hydrophobic molecules in water molecules in the air. It is a general impression is that the coconut crab cuts the coconuts from the tree to eat them on the floor. The Coconut crab is a coconut from the ground and cut a nut shell, take it with his claw. Adult coconut crabs have no known predators themselves apart from other Coconut crabs and people. The large size and the quality of the coconut crab meat that is hunted extensively and is rare on the islands with a human population. 

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Detail: Coconut Crab

0 Flattop Crab

Animal Unique | Flattop Crab | Flattop Crab is a small crab with a shell reaches a diameter of only about ¾ inch. The shield is round and compared to other crabs, the claws seem huge compared to the rest of the crab. If the claws are opened, you can see that the base of the movable "finger" has a bruise. Flattop Crab is a kind of marine porcelain crab found in the eastern Pacific. It is a filter feeder, and also wipe food from rocks. This crab is found along the coast and at a depth of 90 meters on the west coast of North America from California to Alaska. It prefers areas with strong currents and can be found under rocks, especially those embedded in gravel or sand under seaweed and mussel beds in both exposed and sheltered shores.

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Anomura
Family:     Porcellanidae
Genus:     Petrolisthes
Species:     P. eriomerus

Flattop Crabs differs from the true crabs in having four instead of five pereiopods limbs or walk normally visible and are more akin to king crabs and hermit crabs. This little Flattop Crab has a carapace up to 20 millimeters wide with a rounded outline. The body, legs and claws are dorsally flattened. There are a couple of long antennae just off the eyes. The large claw-bearing carpi of the chelipeds have parallel sides and two times as long as they are wide. The limbs are covered with tufts of setae that are most noticeable when the animal is underwater. This porcelain crab is predominantly red-brown or bluish-gray, but the palps, a part of the mouth parts and the knuckles of the cheliped dactyls are blue.

Flattop Crab is a filter feeder eriomerus surviving largely on diatoms that collect the setae on its mouthparts. It also uses the tufts of setae on its chelipeds on deposits by wiping the surfaces of rocks for consumption. Females usually have two broods a year. The larvae are free living and are part of the zooplankton. The zoeal larval stage has a characteristic long rostrum. Men, women and some young people can come together in small groups, and in this, only the dominant males are likely to mate. 

 

Flattop Crabs are not true crabs, but belong to a group called anomurans, making them more akin to crabs and hermit crabs king. An easy to distinguish between perceived and real cabins anomurans is that in anomurans, normally only four pairs of legs are visible, where as in real crabs, five pairs can be seen.

Like other porcelain crabs, Flattop Crab sometimes throws off limbs as a distraction when trying to escape a predator, a process known as autotomy. In this species, however, the claws of the cast limb grip still strong after the divorce. The part is regrown by the porcelain crab over the period of several molts.

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Detail: Flattop Crab

0 Dungeness Crab

Animal Unique | Dungeness Crab | Dungeness Crab or Cancer magister gets its common name of the town of Dungeness, Washington, now called Old Town Dungeness, where the first commercial harvest of crab was done. Dungeness Crab is the only commercially important crab in the state of the territorial waters of Washington and was the first commercially harvested shellfish in the North Pacific Coast. 

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Brachyura
Family:     Cancridae
Genus:     Metacarcinus
Species:     M. magister

Dungeness crabs have a broad, long, hard shell, which they must periodically molt to grow, a process known as ecdysis. They have five pairs of legs, also armored, the foremost pair of which ends in claws which the crab uses both as defense and tear apart large food items. The crab uses its smaller appendages to pass the food particles in his mouth. Once inside the crab's stomach the food is further digested by the "gastric mill", a collection of tooth-like structures. Dungeness crabs prefers to eat clams, other crustaceans and small fish, but also an effective scavenger. Dungeness Crab can be completely buried in the sand when threatened.

Adult female Dungeness Crab usually moult between May and August, and mating occurs immediately after the female has moulted and before the new exoskeleton hardens. Males are attracted to potential partners by pheromones in the urine of female Dungeness Crab. Upon locating an available female, the male initiates a protective pre-mating embrace that lasts several days. In this embrace, the female is tucked under the man, oriented such that their abdomen to touch their heads together.  

Mating occurs only after the female has molted, and the female signals her readiness to molt by urinating on or near the antennae of the male. The female extrudes the eggs from her body several months later, but they remain attached under her abdomen for three to five months until they hatch. Young crabs are free-swimming after hatching and go through five larval stages before reaching maturity after about ten moults or two years.

Approximately one quarter of the weight of the crab's meat. The meat has what is considered a delicate flavor that is slightly sweet. Dungeness Crabs can typically be bought live or cooked. Larger crabs are valued for the higher meat to shell ratio. Live crabs are cooked simply by steaming for 15-18 minutes, or by boiling in water for about 10 minutes. Two common tools for removing crab meat from the shell, a crab cracker and a shrimp fork. Sometimes, a cleaver, mallet or small hammer is used for cracking. 

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Detail: Dungeness Crab

0 Crab

Animal Unique | Crab | Crabs are 10-legged animals that walk sideways. There are almost 5,000 different species of crabs, true crabs around 4500, plus about 500 are hermit crabs (hermit crabs do not have a very hard shell and other animals' old shells for protection of utility). Most crabs live in the oceans, but many, like the robber crab, live on land. Crabs are invertebrates, animals without a backbone. They have an exoskeleton (also called a carapace), an outer shell both protects them from predators and provides support. These crustaceans have ten jointed legs, two large, grasping claws (called tweezers or chelipeds). They have a flattened body, two feelers (antennae), and two eyes located at the ends of the stems.

 

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Suborder:     Pleocyemata
Infraorder:     Brachyura, Linnaeus, 1758

Crabs usually walk sideways (a behavior that gives us the word crab wise). Crabs are mainly active animals with complex behavior patterns. Crabs tend to be aggressive towards each other and males often fight to gain access to females. On rocky seashores, where almost all the caves and crevices are filled, crabs can also fight to hide holes.  

Crabs are omnivores, feeding mostly on algae, and taking other foods, including mollusks, worms, other crustaceans, fungi, bacteria and detritus, depending on their availability and the crab species. Crabs are known to work together to provide food and protection for their family concerns, and during the mating season, a comfortable place for the female release her eggs to find. Marine crabs breathe underwater using gills, which are located in a two cavities under the carapace. True land crabs have enlarged, modified cavities that act as the lungs, so the land crabs can breathe air.

 

Crabs are cooked and eaten as a dish in various ways throughout the world. Some species are eaten whole, including the shell, such as soft-shell crab, other species only the claws and / or legs are eaten. In some regions herbs enhance the culinary experience. In Asia, crab masala and chilli crab are examples of highly seasoned dishes. In the Chesapeake Bay region, is often eaten with blue crab Old Bay seasoning. For the British court Cromer crab, crab meat is removed and placed in the hard shell. An American way of crab meat prepared by the extraction and the addition of a flour mixture, creating a crab cake.

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Detail: Crab

0 Red King Crab

Animal Unique | Red King Crab | Red King Crab were deliberately introduced to the Barents Sea in the 1960s by Soviet scientists, and the stock has increased dramatically in abundance and in distribution. Other than the crabs, they have several common names such as Alaskan crab and Kamchatka king crab. The king crab is native to the Bering Sea, north Pacific around the Kamchatka Peninsula and adjacent waters of Alaska. It is interesting to note that during their migration to the sea, they can be seen on the road walking in groups. They look great in groups and can even stop the traffic and puncture tires. Red King crabs are one of the most interesting sea animals by their appearance and behavior.

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Anomura
Family:     Lithodidae
Genus:     Paralithodes
Species:     P. camtschaticus

These crabs are big in their appearance and can grow to a size of about 11 inches. They weigh up to 10 kg. They have fused thorax and head with a fan-shaped tail. Besides this they have an array of antennas. Their legs can grow to a size of 1.8 meters. It is red, but the color darkens when it is cooked and therefore has received this name. The nature of the food consumed by these species depends on their life history. Pelagic larvae are known to feed on both phytoplankton and zooplankton. The young ones feed mainly on mussels, barnacles, mussels, starfish, etc. In addition, the adults are omnivorous in nature and feed on what's available to them. This consists of the most common benthic organisms.

These marine animals are found in the Pacific Ocean, Kamchatka Peninsula, Berring Sea and the waters of Alaska. They live in a smooth, stiff marsh and bottom holes, ranging from (200-2000) meters. These are large and appear to be more active during the day. They want to stay in the shade because they can die in the heat of direct sunlight. Red King crabs are hollow and residents remain in these caves for two or three months to maintain their body temperature. When the monsoon comes, they return to their breeding grounds in large groups and cover every obstacle that comes along the road. They look very beautiful and amazing as they move the crowd.

It is the most coveted of the commercially-sold king crab species, and is the most expensive per unit weight. It is most commonly caught in the Bering Sea and Norton Sound, Alaska, and is particularly difficult to catch, but is nonetheless one of the most preferred crabs for consumption. The red king crabs are experiencing a steady decline in numbers in their native far east coastal waters for unclear reasons. In the Barents Sea, however, it is an invasive species and its population is increasing tremendously. This is causing great concern to local environmentalists and local fishermen as the crab eats everything it comes across and is spreading very rapidly. West of the North Cape on Norway's northern tip, the Scandinavian country is allowed to manage its crab population itself. Only 259 Norwegian fishermen are allowed to catch it, and they see the king crab as a blessing, as it is an expensive delicacy.

In 2002, the Institute of Marine Research started an extensive research on the impact on ecosystems of the red king crab. The program focuses on topics such as spreading, effects on soil fauna, related parasites, etc. These studies are conducted in close collaboration with Russian scientists. They have shown that the crab feeds on a wide range of prey benthos. There is also an indication that the king crab can influence recruitment lumpsucker by feeding on their egg clutches.

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Detail: Red King Crab