Crab

[Erland R.N.]

Crap, had no flash when I had to photograph a crab in low light.

Fresh water crab, Wakkerstroom, South Africa.
5D, Sigma 150 + 1,4x, slightly cropped
f/9, 1/50 sec, iso 3200, at 3 pm in the afternoon.

First time I saw this crab species, was when an individual was sitting nearly one meter up a tree stem.

They were certainly fun to watch. Mostly they would slowly move toward the water, if they were disturbed, but if I got too close, they changed tactics, turned towards me and tried to look big and scary.

f/5.6, 1/80 sec, iso 1600, at 6 am in the morning.

Have never seen anything like those crabs.

Erland

[rjlittlefield]

Reminds me a lot of the mangrove crabs I saw in Florida.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangrove_crab -- no pics, but a zillion links.

Tree-climbing crabs surprised me too, but I guess there are even species that climb tall palm trees!

Nice closeup of the eye -- shows off the joint at the base really well.

--Rik

[beetleman]

Very interesting creature Erland...super shot of the eye. I like the little bead things to the right, over the mandibles.

[Bruce Williams]

Hi Erland,

There is some really interesting detail edging the carapace and attractive texture to the surfaces too. Do you have any more close-up photos of this plucky little character?

Bruce

[Erland R.N.]

Thank you for comments.

Yes, seeing the pictures as I got home, I noticed these interesting details too. But I really had no oppertunity to photograph close up in good light, and the crab in the top picture, was kind of hiding.

Erland

[Ken Ramos]

Some pretty "crabby" photographs there Erland excellent work.

[cactuspic]

Good captures Erland. Love the eyes.

Irwin

[Erland R.N.]

Thank you Ken and Irvin.

Ken I'm used to your good humor, so there will not be any



from me :-)

Erland

[beetleman]

I think I read somewhere that they found a new species of something living in the mouthparts of lobsters. FOUND IT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbion
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/ind ... ndora.html
I wonder if anything is like that in on land crabs or crabs in general

[rjlittlefield]

I think I read somewhere that they found a new species of something living in the mouthparts of lobsters.

Not just a new species, my friends, but a new phylum. This is fascinating stuff -- I strongly recommend to go read the references.

Doug, thanks for posting this!

--Rik

[beetleman]

That Reinhardt Kristensen likes to rack up the phylums...he did this one also in 1983
http://www.earthlife.net/inverts/loricifera.html The Phylum Loricifera
I would like to see someone from the micro forum come up with a picture of this animal.

Your welcome Rik.

[Erland R.N.]

Interesting stuff you bring to our attention here. It always make me proud to learn that some Danish guys discovers new stuff in our world.