Before arriving in
the CollinLab I´d never worked with porcelain crabs (porcellanids). This is my first time with these small crabs.
They are quite
different from the crabs you see on your dinner plate. Their bodies are compact
and flattened; this is an adaptation for living and hiding under rocks. They are
very abundant along the Pacific Coast where they congregate in tide pools under
rocks because they are very sensitive to desiccation.
Another
characteristic of porcelain crabs is that the antennae are inserted external to
the eyes, not between the eyes like in other crab families.
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| Petrolisthes tridentatus |
Porcelain crabs are quite fragile animals. They often shed their limbs to escape predators (or me), hence their name. They are pretty fast and when you have to collect them, you should be very carefully because you can end up catching only the body… The good news is that they only need a few days to regenerate the legs they lost.
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| P. armatus without a cheliped…yes, I tried to collect it.. |
I´m working with one
species of these Porcellanids, Petrolishtes
armatus. They can be distinguished
from similar species by an orange spot on the chela and blue mouthparts. Also another
unique characteristic useful to differentiate them from another Petrolisthes species, P. tridentatus, is that the cheliped has
3 spines that are very clear to see.
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| P. armatus and P. tridentatus, very difficult to differentiate in the nature. |
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| But under the microscope you can see the difference in the cheliped |
A few months ago I had
no idea what they are. And now…they are
my workmates and I have to admit that they are amazing!
