Japanese Spider crab

 

Japanese Spider crab | The Japanese spider crab is a species of marine crab that lives in the waters around Japan. Japanese spider crabs are mainly located on the southern shores of the Japanese island of Honshu from Tokyo to Kagoshima Prefecture. Rural populations are found in Iwate Prefecture and off Su-ao in Taiwan. Adults can be found at a depth of 600 meters, or as shallow as 50 meters. It has the largest leg span of all arthropods, up to 3.8 meters and weighing up to 41 pounds. It is the subject of small-scale fisheries.

Scientific classification
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:     Arthropoda
Subphylum:     Crustacea
Class:     Malacostraca
Order:     Decapoda
Infraorder:     Brachyura
Superfamily:     Majoidea
Family:     Inachidae
Genus:     Macrocheira, De Haan, 1839
Species:     M. kaempferi

Japanese spider crab has eight legs, two feeding arms. The male specimen is different than the females, the arms of the male specimen, where the claws of the crab are located, the longer the legs that they use to walk.Japanese spider crab's body is mostly red with white spots on his legs. The eyes of the Japanese spider crab are located at the front, with two small horns between the eyes. These horns are shorter with age. Some Japanese spider crab attach sponges and sea anemones on their shells, like all other crabs to protect them against other predators. The Japanese spider crabs seems big, but it is a very delicate creature.

 

Japanese spider crabs are omnivorous and scavenge for food. They can eat algae, plants, mollusks and small fish, catch and tear the meat into their powerful claws. Their long legs allow them to stalk their prey very quickly and move. They move very slowly along the ocean floor, and are thus easy targets for hungry predators, large enough to fall. As a form of protection, they attach sponges and small animals for their shells to distract predators.

 

Japanese spider crabs can be found at a depth of 150m to 800m, but these crabs to go to a depth of about 200m. If the female JJapanese spider crabs need to lay their eggs, they are even at shallow depth of 50m. In recent years, the hunting of these crabs is slightly down due to a conservation program for this species to save end up in a big restaurant. The Japanese spider crab is a delicacy in some bays like Sagami and Suruga. These crabs are usually caught in the spring when they go to the shallow water to lay their eggs. Now there are some tanks where they remain living species of the Japanese Spider crabs for tourism and research.