New (to me) Crab

[Tom Nic]

A new critter! Yay!

I found this guy at TTN today. Snapped one shot that turned out OK. If my eyes don't deceive me, according to Lamb this is a Scaled Crab, Placetron wosnessenskii. Almost 500 dives, and it's the first one I've bumped into. Kinda fun!

[don]

Nice Tom! I've seen those around Pulali Point and Pinnacle. About 5 years ago I first saw one, found them commonly for 2 or 3 years in that area, then they disappeared. Anyone know why the come and go?
don

[Dusty2]

Yay! Always cool finding critters you have never seen before! I find it interesting that these guys have what look like boxing gloves instead of claws.

I have only seen very tiny juveniles and very few of them

[LCF]

How big was this guy? I've only seen one I thought was this, but it was quite a large crab, and IIRC the book says they aren't supposed to get big.

[Greg Jensen]

How big was this guy? I've only seen one I thought was this, but it was quite a large crab, and IIRC the book says they aren't supposed to get big.

I'm sitting here going, "what book is IIRC?" IIRC the book as opposed to IIRC the movie?
And some people think I'm smart....

They get pretty big- only about 3 inches across the carapace but those legs are loooong. 3 tree is about as far south into the sound as I've heard of them; they're more of a north sound/San juans critter. My suspicion is we occasionally get larvae drifting in from the north but, so far at least, they aren't down here in high enough density to successfully get established.

[dwashbur]

How big was this guy? I've only seen one I thought was this, but it was quite a large crab, and IIRC the book says they aren't supposed to get big.

I'm sitting here going, "what book is IIRC?" IIRC the book as opposed to IIRC the movie?
And some people think I'm smart....

They get pretty big- only about 3 inches across the carapace but those legs are loooong. 3 tree is about as far south into the sound as I've heard of them; they're more of a north sound/San juans critter. My suspicion is we occasionally get larvae drifting in from the north but, so far at least, they aren't down here in high enough density to successfully get established.

"IIRC" == "If I Remember Correctly."

[Greg Jensen]

Yeah, I'd googled it by the time I replied. It's just that people always say "W2W" for Whelks to Whales so I was sitting here going, "IIRC- Invertebrate Identification ..uh , WTF?"

[Tom Nic]

How big was this guy?

He was not tiny.

I know it's not all pristine, but you can get a good read on his size when you realize that he's on a tire. :biggrin:

3 tree is about as far south into the sound as I've heard of them;

And that makes it even more cool. Yay! Love finding a new (to me) critter!