The Crab King

Archive for November, 2009

The crab a crustacean with an increased cephalothorax covered by a broad, flat shell called the carapace. Leading from the cephalothorax are the various appendages: five duets of legs, the first pair bearing pincers, are attached at the sides; two eyes on little, ambulant stalks, two short antennules, two lengthier antennae, and many mouthparts are attached at the face; at the behind the tiny abdomen is bent under the cephalothorax.

The abdomen of the female, wider and flatter than that of the male, forms an apronlike structure that continuously circulates water over the eggs that are stocked on her bottom. The free-swimming larva, which hatches in about two weeks, is easily recognized by the large spine that projects from its carapace. After several molts, the junior crab settles to the bottom and starts to take on grown features.

Crabs are mainly aquatic, but some are onshore for long periods of time. They are omnivorous; some are scavengers and others predatory animals. Although they are able of locomotion in all directions, crabs incline to move sideways; swimming crabs have the last pair of legs flattened to form paddles.

The blue crab of the Atlantic seashore of the United States is a swimming crab that is much used for food. It is marketed as a soft-shelled crab after it has molted and before the new shell has toughened. Females of the oyster and mussel crabs exist inside the shells of bivalve mollusks. Often seen scampering about near their burrows in muddy banks are the fiddler crabs , the males of which experience one much enlarged claw used in defense and in wooing rituals. The sand, or ghost, crabs build burrows high up on the sand into which they seem to vanish. The laggard, long-legged spider crabs are often cloaked by the algae, barnacles, and sea anemones that bind themselves to the carapace. The huge spider crab of Japan, the biggest living arthropod, has legs about 4 ft long and a carapace over 1 ft wide. The closely related kelp crabs are found in kelp beds in the Pacific. The name king crab is employed to the largest of the edible crabs, species native to the N Pacific and commercialized frozen, canned, or fresh; the red king crab has been familiarized into the Barents Sea.

Real crabs are categorized in the phylum Arthropoda , subphylum Crustacea, order Decapoda. Although the some species of true crabs are similar in appearance, DNA evidence suggests that that similarity is a result of convergent evolution among several groups of sometines only distantly related decapods. The horseshoe crab , which also is called by the name king crab, is not a crustacean, and the hermit crab , although a crustacean, is not a real crab.

A wonderful resource on crabs and crabbing is located over at http://FlaCrab.com The Nations #1 Crabbing and Shrimping Fourm