The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-22
A DANDY CRUSTACEAN.
ALL ITS TIME SPENT IN OUTGROW-
ING ITS OLD CLOTHES.

men and EpfcurSS-Where he IS SauSnt-
Man and Fish Are His Enemies.
The shelder crab is known to fishermen
equally we'll as an excellent bait and
costly article of merchandise. The rest of
mankind is not so well acquainted with
him, yet he is Il very interesting fellow.
All kinds of fish show a high appreciation
of his fine qualities. which goes long way
toward proving that fish know more than
we are disposed to give them credit for.
Nor is the crab at all ignorant of the active
demand, for as soon as he reaches the shed.
der stage he seeks the strictest seclusion
which his surroundings grant.
The crab is the Reau Brumnlel of crusta-
eeans, and indeed no living creature gives
50 much time and attention to his wearing
apparel. Compared with him in this re-
gard the EXTREMIST dude leads a careless
and easy life. IF he Were a member of the
human family his tailor's bills would con-
sumo his entire earnings. All of this may
sound ridiculous, but it is seriously said,
for the metamorphoses Of the crab are ex-
traordinary.
From the time he leaves the egg till he
arrives at maturity he passes through more
and more frequent transformations than
probably any other member of the animal
kingdom. In his infancy he is so unlike
himself that for centuries he was mistaken
for nondescript, and it was not much
more than fifty years ago that his identity
was even suspected.
HOW HE LOOKS.
~
The female crab carries her eggs, thou
pands, probably hundreds of thousands, in
number, in a great semi-spherical bunch
under her belly until they are hatched
From that time the young crab has to look
out for himself and that he is moderately
successful in this regard is attested by his
presence in vast numbers along our shores
from Maine to Texas On emerging from
the egg he looks somewhat like an impos-
sible combination of those omnipresent
products of New Jersey, the flea and the
mosquito, or, to speak more definitely, he
has fat, irregular shaped body, with
long proboscis, longer tail, long swim.
ming appendages, with spine covered, toe
like branches at the ends, and proportion
ally enormous eyes, not attached to stalks
as in later life, but fixed flat upon the
head
All of these peculiarities are compressed
within minute fraction Of an inch. In
this stage he swims around mostly at the
surface of the water, and was for long
time called zoea for want Of better name
and position in the animal kingdom. Like
the nicknames of human infants, it has
stuck to him, and his infancy is still called
the zoea stage.
But this is not all. In his early youth he
was the victim of another geological mis-
take. Having shed his skin few times he
has increased in size, his eyes have appear
ed on stalks, legs like those of shrimps
have been developed, and nippers have been
added to the pair of front legs, but his
family likeness is still undiscoverable, and
he was therefore regarded as distinct and
solitary genus. and therefore called
megalops.
HIS RAPID GROWTH.
This, in which the tail and proboscis
have nearly if not entirely disappeared, is
even now called the megalops stage After
more shedding of his skin and further
growth he finally appears as miniature
crab about an eighth of an inch long.
Being ready to begin business as crab he
abandons swimming as a profession and
takes to the bottom, goes foraging along
the shores, or attaches himself on floating
seaweed.
The crab literally grows by shedding. AS
fast as his garments become too small for
him he casts them off and appears in
larger suit He is familiar to salt water
fishermen in all sizes, from that of tack
head to silver dollar, but how often he
sheds his shell in these early stages of his
growth is not definitely known. 1t must,
however, be very frequently, for even after
he has reached the edible size he sheds
once month. Men who make business
of hunting him say that his time Of she'd
ding is the full of the moon. After he at
tains his full growth he ceases to shed, and
indications are not wanting that he reaches
ripe old age, as specimens have been
taken with full grown barnacles and oys-
tiers attached to their shells, showing that
they had been wandering about the deep
for some years at least.
When crab is about to shed his shell he
seeks shallow water, and secretes himself
in the roots of the grasses or under punches
of sedge, so as to be as much as possible
out of the way of the fish, which, as before
intimated, are very fond of him at that
stage, and know when and where to look
for him. The striped bass and other large
fish taken along the margins of bays, rivers
and creeks are there, looking for shedder
and soft crabs. Sharks are also very fond
of them. One day the writer saw shark
at least ten feet long carefully searching
mud fat in Barnegat Bay for crabs. There
was very little water on the fiat, and the
dorsal and caudal fins of the big fish were
both severa! inches above water.
HOW HE SHEDS
Fishermen have coined a number of eX-
pressive names for the different stages
through which the crab passes in shedding
his she'll A conner" is a crab in the first
stage when new shell is mere flament
or thin membrane under the old. In the
''shedder" stage the new skin is thick,
soft, elastic envelope to which the old
shell has ceased TO adhere, and from which
it separates readily. even on the claws and
feet. When ready to shed the old shell
separates nearly all round the body at the
base OF the legs and the crab withdraws
itself