New Purple Crab Species Found
April 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM 1 comment
Check out this psychedelic new crab species found recently in the Philipines:
(Photo via Hendrik Freitag, of Germany's Senckenberg Museum of Zoology)
Four new species of freshwater crab, bright purple in color, have been discovered in the biologically diverse but ecologically-threatened Philippines, the man who found them said Saturday.
The tiny crustaceans burrow under boulders and roots in streams, feeding on dead plants, fruits, carrion and small animals in the water at night, said Hendrik Freitag of Germany’s Senckenberg Museum of Zoology.
Found only in small, lowland-forest ecosystems in the Palawan island group, most have purple shells, with claws and legs tipped red.
“It is known that crabs can discriminate colors. Therefore, it seems likely that the coloration has a signal function for the social behavior, e.g. mating,” Freitag told AFP by email on Saturday.
“This could explain why large males of various Insulamon species are more reddish compared to the generally violet females and immature males.”
Mother Nature usually does a great job combining colors but in this case I think she went a little too heavy on the purple.
Entry filed under: Animals (Other Than Us). Tags: .
1.
JC for pennies | April 25, 2012 at 2:05 AM
Nice bright attractive colors in otherwise relatively harmless creatures usually denote great toxicity in nature. You probably shouldn’t snack on ‘em.