Like the chevron – a new type of crab found in Australia

The animals are very “hairy, not crispy, but surprisingly tender” – Andrew Hossie describes a new crab species found off the coast of Western Australia and is now named. The overseer of the Western Australian Museum, who specializes in crustaceans, among others, finds the animal’s brown color very beautiful: it’s reminiscent of the classic “Star Wars” or the seagull from a beagle, he says.

Beagle can also be found in the new name given to the animal by researchers: Lamarctromia BeagleThe latter is the name of Charles Darwin’s research ship that arrived in Western Australia in 1836.

The family saw the washed sample

Somewhere among the hermit crabs and the famous giant red crabs of Christmas Island are the animals that live between the village of Hoptown and Cape Naturalist Headland in southwestern Australia. Omnivores are found in rock pools, but also in deeper parts of the ocean, and are relatively quiet animals that are slow-moving and non-aggressive.

Hossie first learned about her 13 years ago when she started as a custodian at the Western Australian Museum. “A family in Denmark sent me photos of the washed animal and then brought another specimen to Perth,” he said. The researcher consulted a New Zealand sponge crab expert to compare the animals with other creatures in the museum – but the unusual fur appearance of the animals made the classification difficult.

Camouflage well with sponge

However, for more than a decade now the riddle has been solved – the animals actually belong to the sponge crabs, even though they do not have the usual, rather mechanical appearance of other crab animals. However, other types of sponge are carried just like crabs Lamarctromia Beagle A sponge on their body to distract predators from their presence, such as large fish or octopuses.

The hair can also act as a camouflage – at present it looks like sponge, the supervisor said. Although the Western Australian crab is a member of the sponge crab family, Hosie says no other animal is as “hairy” as it is. “It’s really very unusual,” he said. The closest thing he had ever seen was a crab with straight sliced ​​bangs.

“The Greatest Natural Wonder of the Earth”

Western Australia is known for its interesting crab species: for example, the giant crabs on Christmas Island are world famous. British animal filmmaker David Attenborough once described their annual migration of crabs as “one of the greatest natural wonders of the earth”. Thousands of tourists flock to this remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 2,600 kilometers northwest of Perth. For many, the wildlife scene on the Australian island is on their bucket list, one of the things many people want to see and experience before they die.

Many large crabs live on Christmas Island.

© Source: Raphael Bick / Unsplash

On the island, 50 million red crabs migrate to the sea each year. The official migration, which is linked to the phases of the rainy season and the moon, among other things, is causing chaos on the island: fish are blocking roads, flooding golf courses and halting daily life. Because when marching to the sea, the crabs cross the roads, the island golf course or the local school campus.

There, the school bus should be set aside in addition to preventing any animals from being crushed, and devices should be installed at the school to prevent crabs from going straight into the classrooms. Some roads are completely closed during migration and the local radio station broadcasts regular “crab traffic updates” so Christmas Islanders know where the large concentration of animals is, briefly covering the ground like a red carpet.

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