### animal | arthropod | decapod | crab:

Coconut crab
* are active at night which makes it difficult to see slight differences in body motion
  - extremely high priced in the national food market
* can climb trees.
* inhabit burrows.
* live alone in underground burrows and rock crevices, depending on the local terrain.
  * The 'coconut crab', 'Birgus latro', large edible land crab related to the hermit crab. Coconut crabs are found in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Even though they are named the Coconut crab, they don't eat coconuts that often. They mainly eat certian fruits and nuts. Coconut crabs can climb trees. Coconut crab meat has been considered a local delicacy. Coconut crabs are extremely high priced in the national food market.

Crab lice
* are much smaller than head and body lice
  - small, light brown, flat, pinhead insects that infest pubic hair
  - tiny wingless insects that look like crabs when seen under a microscope
* live only on the hairy portions of the body.
* thrive in warm conditions.

Decorator crab
* are an important food source for some fishes, including croakers and cabezon.
* eat sea urchins, small crustaceans, and sponges.
* tend to use material from their immediate habitat for most effective camouflaging.

### animal | arthropod | decapod | crab:

Female crab
* Most female crabs attain full growth and mate only once, during their second summer.
* Most female crabs go into salinity water
  - reach size
  - seek habitats
* Some female crabs bury in mud.
* Some female crabs have abdominal flaps
  - live in estuaries
* are smaller, with smooth, round shells
  - usually smaller than males and contain bitter-tasting roe
* can only mate after they molt, or shed their shell.
* carry eggs under the apron, which becomes distended as eggs mature
  - their own sperm packets that they can use to fertilize eggs if no mate is found
* expend their energy on egg production, and therefore grow more slowly than male crabs.
* lack it.

### animal | arthropod | decapod | crab:

Fiddler crab
* All fiddler crabs are similar in shape, having a smooth carapace and a square-shaped body.
* Most fiddler crabs live on the shoreline in temperate and tropical waters.
* are a small kind of crab found in mangroves and on the beaches of much of the world.
* are also avid burrowers
  - important in energy flow within the marsh
  - significant organizers of the tidal marsh community
  - avid burrowers, and their burrowing activity can erode or undermine marsh banks
  - capable of scraping food particles off grains of sand
  - colonial, often living together in large clusters
  - found along sea beaches and brackish inter-tidal mud flats, lagoons and swamps
  - key organisms in tidal marshes
  - small crustaceans with a distinctive enlarged claw
  - the little crabs found living in burrows near the water's edge
  - very good at escaping down the burrows which they dig in the muddy marsh
* build burrows along the mudfiat edges, where they increase the oxygenation of soils.
* burrow into the marsh substrate for shelter.
* crawl around on the mud when the tide is out.
* eat algae, bacteria and decaying marsh plants.
* form two types of characteristic pellets affecting sediment surface topography.
* get their name from the male's large claw.
* live on sandy and muddy beaches that are uncovered during low tide.
* mate every two weeks in summer.
* molt once or twice per year.
* run around the mangrove areas during low tide eating plant debris.
* turn a dark color during the day and turn a lighter color at night.
* vary in color from tan to brown.