While crabs may creep visitors on the beach, some of the species listed below are sure to strike your heartstrings. From hermit crabs digging into the ground to ghost crabs digging sand, the following crustaceans are sure to amaze you with their wild appearance and extraordinary behavior.
1. (1) ❶ Pink Ghost Crab
This uniquely colored ghost crab is only found in parts of the east coast of Africa, from the Eastern Cape to Kenya. Like other ghost crabs, the pink ghost crab is a beach scavenger that looks mainly for food at night.
Their large eyes have a 360-degree field of view. Combined with their keen sense of smell, pink ghost crabs can easily spot nearby foods. These beautiful crabs have always been small, usually only growing to 4 centimeters long.
2. (2) ❷ Brown box crab
This furry brown box crab is actually a type of king crab. Like other king crabs, the brown box crab lives in cold water, and its life ranges from Southern California all the way to Kodiak Island in Alaska.
Until recently, brown box crabs were mostly accidentally caught or used as bait. Now, brown box crab populations and other non-traditional crab species are being explored as an "emerging fishery."
Some fishermen now specialize in harvesting brown box crabs, while allocating funds to estimate the number of brown box crabs to inform fishing limits.
3. (3) ❸ Soft-haired new petal crab/strawberry crab
Many brightly colored red crabs with white spots are often referred to as "strawberry crabs".
A wide variety of strawberry crabs have been found in the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia and in our province of Taiwan. These crabs are a small, brightly colored coral reef crab that is considered quite poisonous.
4. (4) ❹ Christmas Island Red Crab
Christmas Island Red Crab is a land crab that is distributed on various islands in the Indian Ocean. In the 1990s, more than 40 million of these adorable red crabs lived on Christmas Island.
Unfortunately, in recent years, the accidental introduction of the Slender-footed Swift Ant has ruined the population of the Red Crab on Christmas Island. The Slender-Footed Swift Ant takes advantage of the annual migration of the Christmas Island red crab, during which the Christmas Island red crab migrates more than ten kilometers to find a mate.
Most Christmas Island Red Crab pups become snacks for fish, manta rays, and even whale sharks, but occasionally a large number of Christmas Island Red Crabs survive to maintain the island's population.
5. (5) ❺ Ghost Crab / Atlantic Ghost Crab
The big-eyed Atlantic ghost crab lives on the sands from Brazil to Rhodes. The crab's off-white body allows it to easily blend into the sand, disguised as sand to avoid predator attacks.
The speed and observation of the Atlantic ghost crab is also impressive, making it difficult to observe up close.
The best way to see the Atlantic Ghost Crab is to look for its crab footprints in the sand, which lead to the crab's underground caverns. Or, if you stop at the beach at night, you might see some Atlantic ghost crabs looking for food.
6. (6) ❻ Palawan purple crab
In 2012, the Palawan purple crab was first discovered in freshwater near Palawan in the Philippines, making it one of only four of the new crab species.
Little is known about these beautiful freshwater crabs, but there are fears that habitat destruction could harm these newly discovered adorable animals.
7. (7) ❼ Candy striped hermit crab
This petite hermit crab was accidentally photographed by a photographer at Bonaire National Marine Park in the Caribbean in 2017.
Since then, it has been discovered that this cute candy striped hermit crab lives in moray eel caves, leading scientists to suspect that candy striped hermit crabs may provide "cleaning" services for moray eels. The stripe color of this crab is also similar to that of other cleaning animals, such as cleaning shrimp.
8. (8) ❽ Spotted bread crab
The spotted bread crab is one of the few crab species that reproduces through internal fertilization. While most crab species are fertilized in vitro by releasing eggs and sperm at the same time, the spotted bread crab carries developing embryos until the juvenile crabs hatch.
9. (9) ❾ Fairy crab
Fairy crabs, although their names mean fairy, these furry pink crustaceans and their relatives are actually crabs. They usually live on equally vibrant tropical sponges.
10. (10) ❿ Porcelain crab
Despite their very different appearances, porcelain crabs have a close relationship with fairy crabs and other short, wide lobsters.
There are more than 200 known species of porcelain crabs in the world, and they are usually found in shallow tropical waters.