By Matthew Cobb
King of gifs (you know how that’s pronounced here, don’t you…) @JohnRHutchinson just tw**ted this fabulous gif of a pom-pom crab. It appears that they pick up sea anemones, which sting, and wave them around as a form of defence. I wonder if and how that hypothesis has been tested, or if it’s just “obvious”. Malacostracologists, please chip in!
The pom-poms are nice, but check out those eight fishnet stockings!
Malacologists?
Oops. My bad. Fixed.
😉
Actually, malacostracology is a new one on me.
Used to have pom-poms in my reef tanks–one of my all-time favorite critters. Yes they do wield those ‘nems in the most defensive way–used to easily keep the larger emerald crabs at bay.
Campest little critter ever
And there are some who consider cheerleaders fatuous. 🙂
I’m sure if cheerleaders had pompoms that concealed venomous harpoons they would get more respect. And also arrested.
Cute! Next, the football-playing crab?
I hope her team wins!
Give me a “W”, give me an “E”, give me an “I”, then give me a “T”…
Clearly that was out of bounds. I think they are playing with a blind reef.
lol
The bold, contrasting bands of light and dark color on the crab is a classical ‘warning’ display for sea critters. This is suggestive that this crab packs a wallop. Yellow and black or red and black warning colors seen in terrestrial animals are not so useful as warning colors under water b/c those warm colors are hard to see in that environment. See for ex. the lion fish or blue ringed octopus for similar examples.
I think it’s more of a “pay attention and think it over” signal rather than a warning signal. Cleaner shrimp have red bands in a similar pattern, but fish don’t run away from them. Patterns like this probably did develop as a warning, but co-evolution among several species has allowed these pattens to communicate things other than danger.
Even though cleaner shrimp are red and white, you are probably right that it’s the pattern that matters more than the color as red light doesn’t travel that well underwater.
This is why it’s so difficult for us to find Waldo in the picture books. Our instinct guides us to avoid those bold stripes.
Another tool user, humans are going to have to find something else to make themselves feel special.
I wonder if the sea anemones used by the crabs are able to procure more food than the unused anemones? Is the relationship symbiotic, that is, helpful to both?
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.