
This week's Fish Hoek walk revealed a few Three-Spot Swimming Crabs (
Ovalipes trimaculatus) washed up on the high tide mark. These crabs live in the turbulent surf zone on sandy beaches and eat bivalves and gastropods, particularly Plough Snails (
Bullia). They can swim, as their hind limbs which have "paddles" on them indicate, but they also scuttle across the sand, and bury themselves in the sand - backwards first - when threatened.
Are they as huge as the one in the photo looks?
ReplyDeleteJane x
Great camoflague outfit
ReplyDeleteNo - small - only about 4 cam across.
ReplyDeleteWe saw quite a few of them at Noordhoek while walking in the beach. Most just shells though.
ReplyDeletePhew, I wouldn't want to meet a larger one!
ReplyDeleteJane x