{"id":3982,"date":"2010-01-22T21:43:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-23T02:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3982"},"modified":"2010-01-23T12:41:05","modified_gmt":"2010-01-23T17:41:05","slug":"the-crabby-days-of-winter-ladys-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3982","title":{"rendered":"Crabby Days of Winter — Lady’s First"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"001<\/a><\/p>\n

Male Lady Crab Found Under Lieutenant Island Bridge<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beautifully colored and comically aggressive, lady crabs (Ovalipes ocellatus<\/em>), also called calico crabs, are medium sized crustaceans found in sandy, shallow\u00c2\u00a0inter-tidal\u00c2\u00a0zones along the Atlantic coastline of the United States from Cape Cod to Texas. On Outer Cape Cod thousands of lady crabs populate the\u00c2\u00a0shallow tidal flats and submerged sandbars south of Lieutenant Island.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"002<\/a><\/p>\n

Lady Crab Carapace (Note Paddle-Shaped Swimming Legs)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lady crabs\u00c2\u00a0dart quickly across the shallow tidal flats and\u00c2\u00a0burrow into the soft sand for stealth and protection.\u00c2\u00a0 When confronted in the open, they display fiercely aggressive behavior.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Lady crabs\u00c2\u00a0attack whatever comes within reach of their subsurface hiding spots, which provides an excellent and compelling\u00c2\u00a0reason to wear water shoes whenever strolling these shores.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The Turtle Journal team\u00c2\u00a0has been attacked with great frequency, especially when\u00c2\u00a0turbulent surf creates turbid water conditions.<\/p>\n

\"003<\/a><\/p>\n

Lady Crab Bottom; Again Note Rear Swimming Legs<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Females have a broad abdominal flap under which they carry eggs; males have narrow flaps, sometimes termed the “Washington Monument.”\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"005<\/a><\/p>\n

Lady Crab Molt from Lieutenant Island on Cape Cod<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lady crabs molt as they grow to their full size of approximately four inches width.\u00c2\u00a0 As we patrol the salt marsh along the Lieutenant Island shoreline early each spring, we find hundreds and hundreds of molts (empty shells) washed ashore.<\/p>\n

\"007<\/a><\/p>\n

Squid from Wellfleet Bay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These crabs are hunting and scavenging carnivores.\u00c2\u00a0 They like fish that may unsuspectingly swim by their hiding spot, as well as clams\u00c2\u00a0and crabs.\u00c2\u00a0 We inadvertently discovered during a 2008 Mass Audubon<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0Marine Life Cruise in Wellfleet Bay that lady crabs LOVE squid.<\/p>\n

\"006<\/a><\/p>\n

Squid Eggs Washed Ashore on Lieutenant Island<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

During our Crab Field School in July 2008, we found this large assemblage of squid eggs that had washed ashore on the west coastline of Lieutenant Island where we were sampling crab population numbers and diversity.\u00c2\u00a0 See\u00c2\u00a0our Crabs 2008 Facebook<\/a> page for photographic and video coverage of this exciting and unique\u00c2\u00a0field adventure.<\/p>\n

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\n\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Love at First Bite: “Off With Their Heads!”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We had collected a lady crab in a scallop drag on\u00c2\u00a0the Marine Life Cruise during our Crabs Field School in the summer 2008.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on\u00c2\u00a0whether you are\u00c2\u00a0crustacean or\u00c2\u00a0cephalopod or observer, the lady crab and a small squid ended up in the same retaining tank aboard the Naviator.\u00c2\u00a0 The video above documents the outcome of that fateful encounter.\u00c2\u00a0 Word puzzle of the day:\u00c2\u00a0 What does one call a beheaded cephalopod?<\/p>\n

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Lady Crab Mating Pair: “How ‘Bout\u00c2\u00a0a Little Privacy?”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As we patrol the flats in late spring, hundreds of mating pairs of lady crabs scatter across the submerged sandbars … with partner lovingly cradled for protection and possession.<\/p>\n

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\n\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thousands of Juvenile Lady Crabs Frolic on Tidal Flats<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When\u00c2\u00a0they reach subadult\u00c2\u00a0form and size\u00c2\u00a0after\u00c2\u00a0a few molts, many thousands of small juveniles swarm across the Lieutenant Island tidal flats in summer.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

One observation we have noted during our diamondback terrapin research in these waters is that the presence of crabs, on any given day,\u00c2\u00a0indicates an absence of turtles, and conversely, the presence of turtles presages an absence of crabs on that day.\u00c2\u00a0 Not too surprising, since crabs provide the principal staple\u00c2\u00a0for the adult female terrapin diet!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Male Lady Crab Found Under Lieutenant Island Bridge Beautifully colored and comically aggressive, lady crabs (Ovalipes ocellatus), also called calico crabs, are medium sized crustaceans found in sandy, shallow\u00c2\u00a0inter-tidal\u00c2\u00a0zones along the Atlantic coastline of the United States from Cape Cod to Texas. On Outer Cape Cod thousands of lady crabs populate the\u00c2\u00a0shallow tidal flats and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3982"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4012,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3982\/revisions\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}