Help - What is it!

[The Hamburger]

I found this little guy on North Twin in Burma about three weeks ago.

Can any body help Identifying it.

Seemed to be some sort of crab pretending to be a peble.

8m Night Dive.

S&S NX80 , twin YS90 DUO , Velvia

Cheers

 

[mapman]

I can`t swear to it, but it looks like a decorator crab. We have a lot of them in Northwest Florida. They are really neat critters, and you can`t tell they are alive until they move. They spend most of their time gathering stuff and adding to their disguise.

 

[The Hamburger]

A friend of mine took this picture of a decorated crab

(thanks Damnam)

I also saw a couple they seemed to have quite long legs , which this guy does not.

Thanks any way.

Cheers

 

[CJ's]

Hi Hamburger,
It looks like some kind of Box Crab. Very well disguised but not actually decorator crabs. These guys will usually bury themselves in sand or sediment so you are lucky to have seen him sitting out in the open!

Where's the next trip to? Getting very jealous!

CJ.

 

[The Hamburger]

Next trip will be back to Puerto Galera , probably in may.

You can see details @ http://www.damnam.org see the forums section.

CJ's mmmmmmmmmmm.... you wouldn't have anything to do with carpeting would you?

If So we met in PG last time , October?

Our next trip after that will be Lembeh Straights July 1st. Also see web site.

Cheers

 

[Juv]

Too bad I didn't dive the North or South Twins

But I found this Decorator crab at Black Rock.

 

[mapman]

Man I love these little guys, any of you marine biologist out there know how many different varities there are? Keep the pics coming
Alan

 

[Noodlefish]

No idea on species numbers. Have been searching high and low through old text books, but no good figures yet. I think there are around 26,000 crustacea species ID'd so far, but looking for a better breakdown...

Next stop, Invertebrates by Bruscha & Bruscha!

Great pic by the way - I thought it was a bivalve mollusc the first time I saw it!