They hide in their burrows during high tide and emerge when the tide goes down to scoop up and filter the surface layer of sand, taking out and ingesting detritus and small organisms, leaving behind long rows of little balls of "clean" sand.
Karen, I wished I could comment on Ocypode species and species distribution, but I can't. - What I want to congratulate you on, though, is that you caught this individual apparently nibbling on either legs or part of an exuvia of another crab. These highly specialized sand filterers are also scavengers (like so many other crabs)!
3 Comments
They hide in their burrows during high tide and emerge when the tide goes down to scoop up and filter the surface layer of sand, taking out and ingesting detritus and small organisms, leaving behind long rows of little balls of "clean" sand.
Thanks Peter - I hadn't realized what it was eating. We saw very few of the pretty little crabs, & only on San Cristobal.
Karen, I wished I could comment on Ocypode species and species distribution, but I can't. - What I want to congratulate you on, though, is that you caught this individual apparently nibbling on either legs or part of an exuvia of another crab. These highly specialized sand filterers are also scavengers (like so many other crabs)!