Life in the mud "18:30.13N 64:21.82W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 18 Dec 2011 01:13
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We're in North Sound, Virgin Gorda anchored next to
Prickly Pear Island upon which there is a shallow salt lagoon. When we were last
here in the Spring it was dry but at this time of year it teems with
life.
The guys below are Salt Pan Fiddler Crabs,
Uca bergersi which have a body about the size of a large
pea. There are loads of species of these
little fiddler crabs around the world, all apparently closely related because
they are all in the genus Uca. Here they are, sitting in the shallows
at the edge of the pond in their thousands.
 The males have one large claw orange used for
signalling and display and one small grey one used for feeding. Some species are
very territorial and very aggressive to each other. You can see the size
difference below:
 And interestingly, they come right-handed and
left-handed, just like us:
 The crabs sit in large numbers mostly at the edge
of these highly saline lagoons. They have excellent eyesight (you can see their
eyes on stalks in the pictures) and move away in unison from any
approaching figure rather like a shoal of fish. This leads to a quite comical
wave of running crabs some few feet in advance of a prowling human.
I think thy're cute.
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