![]() Males are larger than females and have larger chelipeds, the legs that hold their claws, though females have wider abdomens to hold their eggs. These animals also have spines behind and in front of their short eye stalks. ![]() ![]() Those round shells and long legs give Japanese spider crabs an arachnid-like look, hence their common name. In these waters, their mottled orange-and-white bodies, cream-colored undersides, and spiny, oval carapaces blend in with the rocks on the ocean floor. (They spawn at the shallower end of that spectrum.) They thrive in temperatures of about 50 degrees. Japanese spider crabs live on the Pacific side of Japan as far south as Taiwan and at chilly depths ranging from 164 feet to as low as 1,640 feet. In this crab’s case, those appendages are its 10 legs. They’re also one of the world’s largest arthropods, animals with no backbone, external skeletons, and multiple-jointed appendages. Of the 60,000 species of crustaceans on Earth, Japanese spider crabs are the largest, spanning up to 12.5 feet from the tip of one front claw to the other. They may look like something from a 1950s sci-fi film, but Japanese spider crabs are gentle giants.Īnd giants they are.
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