Coconut crab
Birgus latro (Linnaeus, 1766)
Birgus latro belongs to the phylum Arthropoda, class Crustacea, order Decapoda, suborder Ovipositor, suborder Heteroceratops, family Terrestrial hermit crabs, genus Coconut Crab, and the coconut crab is the only species of the genus Coconut Crab. It differs in many ways from the typical crabs (suborder Short-tailed). It is distributed in southern Japan and the islands of the South Pacific. China is only produced in southern Taiwan Province. The body is very large, and the length of the cephalothorax can be more than 16 cm. The carapace and appendages are calcified and thick, and the surface of the cephalothoracic armor and the stepping feet are corrugated. The gill area of the cephalothorax is particularly enlarged. The frontal horns are triangular and the eye scales are small. The left cheliped is larger than the right cheliped. Abdominal dorsal and lateral armor are calcified and partially curved under the cephalothorax. Only one side retains the reduced ventral limb. Coconut crabs live in tropical forests near the sea and are good tree climbers. It prefers the fruit, carrion, or various plants of coconut or ludo trees. Returning to the sea during the breeding season, its larvae metamorphose and grow in seawater.
Coconut crab's large size, hard shell, with two strong and powerful chelipeds, make it look fierce and brutal, so in Taiwan, people call it "mountain bully"; and because of its head and chest pattern is very close to the eight trigrams, also known as "eight trigrams crab". It is also a tree climber, especially good at climbing straight coconut trees, and it can use its strong chelae to peel off the hard coconut shell, and then enjoy the sweet coconut meat inside (pictured). That's why it's also known internationally as the "coconut crab". Some people also call it a "robber crab" because it looks so tough.
Besides the large and small chelipeds, the crab's body is symmetrical on both sides, and its large and sturdy body is often mistaken for that of a crab, but it is a real hermit crab! Because they don't have to live in the snail shells that bind their bodies, adult crabs have a more impressive appearance, and the largest in foreign countries once weighed more than seven kilograms and were nearly half a meter in length, making them the largest arthropods on land.
The coconut crab is an animal of marine origin, and like other animals that originally lived in the sea but later migrated to land, it has to face the problem of respiration and water loss. Therefore, it has many blood vessels lining its gill cavities to help it breathe, a chitinous shell, and inhabits areas with high humidity, shelter and cavities that provide shade from the sun, soft soil for digging, hibernating or molting, and plenty of food, so it can live on land for long periods of time before returning to the sea to spawn during the breeding season.
Coconut crabs grow slowly, growing larger with each molt, which usually occurs in the fall and winter. Juvenile crabs molt about two to three times a year, and as individuals grow larger, the number of molts decreases, with adult crabs molting only once a year at most. It is estimated that with such a slow growth rate, it may take more than 40 years for the coconut crab to reach the size of 4 kilograms.
As its name suggests, the coconut crab eats coconuts, and coconut meat is its favorite food. It can easily climb up tall trees to cut down coconuts and chisel through the shells to eat the meat because of the strength of its chelae. But coconut meat is not its only food, it is a very mixed diet, almost any organic matter to eat, when it is hungry, whether it is the fruit and leaves of plants, corrupted animal carcasses, and even smaller than their own kind, it is eaten, really "insatiable appetite", so got a "robber crab
Strange and interesting is that the coconut crab is a marine animal, but because of its gill cavity lining with multiple clusters of blood vessels, can help breathing, so it can be a long time inhabiting the land life, and not often live in the ocean, only to the breeding season to return to the ocean to spawn. The larvae born to it grows and develops in the ocean and then climbs up to the shore to live again. The crab is widely distributed in the tropical areas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. According to records, in the Indian Ocean, Christmas Island, as well as the Malay Archipelago, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, as well as China's South China Sea and Taiwan Province are distributed.
Coconut crab meat flavorful, abdominal fat, nutrient-rich, especially its eight feet, taste like lobster's tail, coupled with a unique coconut flavor. In the method of eating whether steamed, stewed and boiled soup and other flavors are very fresh and delicious; and crab paste steamed eggs taste excellent; if the angelica, red dates, round meat with stew, more is regarded as a tonic good. Around southern Taiwan, coconut crab is also regarded as nourishing natural game, such as the belly of the paste yellow into the rice wine consumption, more is considered to be a strong fine products, so coconut crab in addition to biologists as a research object, in recent years, more on the hall of elegance, and become a valuable seafood delicacies favored by the people, and is very valuable to develop.