In 1991 over 2,000 crabs were found along this area of the harbor. For the fourth year, the horseshoe crab census has tracked the spawning activity of the horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay. On Saturday, June 5th scientist and volunteers will hit the Delaware Bay beaches in both New Jersey and Delaware to try to estimate the 1993 population of horse shoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs can be consider as impostor crabs, or false crabs. For they are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crabs.
True crabs have two sets of antennae, a pair of jaws, one set of claws, and ten legs.
The prosoma is the frontal region of the crab and is shaped like the foot print of a horse. It's this structure that gives the crab its name. Some of the surface features of the prosoma include the eyes, mouth, other sensory organs, walking legs and feeding appendages. The horseshoe crab has two sets of eyes and other light sensing organs on the prosoma. The largest pair of eyes are the compound eyes which are located on the sides of ridges on the prosoma.