Japanese Spider Crab
Macrocheira kaempferi (Temminck, 1836)
Range: Japan's Pacific Coast (Islands of Konshu and Kyushu)
Habitat: Continental Shelves with Sandy or Rocky Bottoms
Diet: Carrion, Small Invertebrates, Kelp, Algae
Social Grouping: Asocial
Reproduction: Mate in the spring (January through March). Packets of sperm (called spermatohores) are inserted into the female's body. Females may lay over one million eggs per season, less than 1 millimeter in diameter, which she carriers on her body. Eggs hatch after 10 days, after which there is no parental care.
Lifespan: 50-100 Years (Speculation)
Conservation Status: Not Evaluated
- Largest (but not heaviest) living arthropod with longest legspan - up to 4 meters from the tip of one leg to the tip of the opposite. Pear-shaped body is up to 37 centimeters long. Females are wider but slightly smaller than males with shorter legs. Weigh up to 20 kilograms
- Color is mottled red-orange, usually fading int a cream color on the underside. Colors tend to be brighter after a molt
- The long legs are very fragile and somewhat weak. Most crabs are missing at least one due to predation or getting tangled in nets; legs grow back with molts
- Folk tales describe spider crabs seizing sailors and dragging them underwater to eat; unlikely to be true, but have have been inspired by sights of crabs scavenging drowned humans
- Adults have few predators. As such, they do not camouflage themselves by decorating their shells with sponges and other items as many other crabs due
- Specimens have occasionally been found at a considerable distance from Japan, as far as Taiwan - it's likely that these individuals were carried there either by fishing trawlers or by extreme weather conditions
- Considered a delicacy in Japan, though catch has declined significantly in recent years. Law prohibits fishing for them during the mating season
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