Stalker Crab
by Judy Hall-Folde
Title
Stalker Crab
Artist
Judy Hall-Folde
Medium
Photograph
Description
On a sultry, humid afternoon on Anastasia Island in Florida, Stalker Crab and I played a game of hide and seek. He (or she) would creep up on me until I looked, then he/she would dive and hide...what a wonderful subject. I love my "Stalker Crab."
Atlantic Ghost Crabs (Ocypode quadrata) are small crabs (up to around 50 mm) with squarish sand-colored shells having margins that are finely beaded but toothless; the claws are white. The space between the eyes is much shorter than the eyestalks. These crabs dig burrows above the intertidal zone on ocean beaches from Delaware (U.S.A.) through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to Brazil. They are occasionally found north to eastern Long Island and Rhode Island, but are uncommon north of Virginia. Atlantic Ghost Crabs are very active and can often be seen dashing into the retreating surf to wet their gills or to grab scraps of food ("Ocypode" means "swift-footed"), although they will drown if kept submerged. Young crabs burrow just above the intertidal zone, but adults dig their burrows higher up, sometimes even behind the forward dunes. Burrows have a single opening and descend 0.6 to 1.2 meters at a 45 degree angle. Although these crabs are often out and about during the day, they are most active at night. (Gosner 1978) http://eol.org/pages/313161/details#reproduction
Uploaded
September 28th, 2011
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Comments (9)
MaryJane Armstrong
I agree with everything John said about this image! I love it! Looks like he, or she, stopped and posed! v/G+/t
JOHN TELFER
Judy, what a fantastic photo, love it, the details that you captured are great. Those big eyes are stunning and funny the great capture of the claws of the stalker crab are also great. Nice capture of the sand without taking the crab or the sand out of the photo and being able to keep both of them in it. Great photo, voted, Tweet, FB and Google+ promoted and selected as my Pay It Forward in the Self Taught Artist group for today, Saturday