#powerful crab

[platycryptus]

Giant hermit crab (Petrochirus diogenes)

This specimen is relatively small. P. diogenes is the world’s second-largest hermit crab species, growing large enough to inhabit a full sized queen conch shell and beaten only by the terrestrial coconut crab, which is a hermit crab that stops using shells when it matures.

I can only assume that the the “diogenes” in its name has to do with the guy who slept in a barrel

(Florida, 2/27/21)

[platycryptus]

Jonah crab (Cancer borealis)

these are normally more of a reddish brown color, but this one that I found in a wave-beaten rock pool has been turned pink by an encrustation of coralline algae.