Fun Trivia » Animals » Invertebrates » Crustaceans

The robber crab, also known as the coconut crab, is known for taking coconuts. It is commonly believed that it cracks them open with its claws, but this is not true as a robber crab is not strong enough to do so. Instead, the robber crab pierces its claws into the coconut and drops it from a high tree or eats coconuts that split open naturally. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Banana, Papaya, Durian

From thefreedictionary.com: "the department of Zoology which treats of the Crustacea (lobsters, crabs, etc.)"

Other names for the same study include crustalogy, crustaceology, and malacostracology.

Difficulty: Hard.

 

anthropology, gastroenterology, entomology

The scientific name comes from the Greek word "Orego" which means to stretch or reach, and the Latin word, "Gracilis" meaning slender, thin or simple. Plagusia chabrus is the scientific name for the red rock crab. Ovalipes australiensis is the scientific name for the sand crab and Mictyris platycheles which is the scientific name for the soldier crab. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Plagusia chabrus, Ovalipes australiensis, Mictyris platycheles

The silty, less saline waters of the Chesapeake are ideal for blue crabs to scavenge, hide from predators, and mate. Smaller populations of blue crabs can be found outside of the U.S. ranging from Nova Scotia to Argentina. Difficulty: Hard.

 

The Gulf of Mexico, The Atlantic Ocean, The Delaware Bay

Hermit crabs are difficult to breed in captivity because they need natural ocean currents to be simulated, and plankton for the young to feed on. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Only the white variety, Its not possible, Only in temperatures above 80'F

The robber crab can reach over three feet in length and since arthropods have heavy exoskeletons, scientists believe it is impossible for an undiscovered arthropod to be bigger, as the exoskeleton would make it practically immobile. Robber crabs have been found to weigh up to nine pounds, but most are smaller. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Crab species, Swimming crustacean, Shellfish

The other three scientific names belong to other crustaceans. Cancer pagurus is the edible crab. It is very common and has a very recognisable 'pie-crust' style shell. Pagurus bernhardus is the common hermit crab. The hermit crab commonly occupies winkle and whelk shells, and once it gets too large for the shell, it will seek out a larger one. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Cancer pagurus, Pagurus bernhardus, Necora puber

Daphnia usually breed through parthenogenesis, where a female produces live young solely from her own genes but not genetically identical. For the winter period or times of drought males are used for normal sexual reproduction, where eggs are laid that can survive the winter period and hatch when the environment becomes less hostile. Males can only be created through sexual reproduction. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Sexually, Asexually, Cloning

Savory, absolutely. But beautiful is a stretch. Difficulty: Hard.

 

"Fierce bottom-dweller", "Swimming crustacean that is peevish", "Hard-shelled scavenger"

While hermit crabs can pinch, it is difficult for them to grab hold of flesh on a flat palm. Beware, they can scuttle very fast and fall! Difficulty: Hard.

 

By the back of its shell, By its large pincer, Using a tool

The International Union for Conservation of Nature states the data deficient is "is not a threatened category, although it indicates a need to obtain more information on a taxon to determine the appropriate listing." Usually the term is applied to newly discovered species or when a species is discovered in a new place and warrants reassessment of its conservation status. It had previously been considered vulnerable until 1996. Difficulty: Hard.

 

The conservation status of robber crabs has never been studied, There are too few robber crabs in the wild to come to a correct conclusion, Robber crabs are in no danger whatsoever of becoming extinct

There are different groups of crustaceans that are officially classed as lobsters, but people usually mean the family of clawed lobsters when they say simply 'lobster'. Lobsters continue to grow in size for as long as they live, which many experts believe could be indefinitely, if they are not captured, attacked in the wild or become diseased. As lobsters grow, they molt; they discard their old shell, eat it, and grow a new one. Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

They migrate to cleaner water, They have babies, They die

The alternate black and white bands on its legs distinguish the decorator crab from other, similar species. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Red and white, Blue and white, Yellow and red

A hermit crab looks very much like a small lobster, except their tails are curved to hold the inside of their "borrowed" shell, and are not covered by a shell. They look fleshy. Difficulty: Hard.

 

A slug, ----------, ----------

They have piercing red eyes, and should hopefully put you off touching them! They are very aggressive crabs, and will not hesitate to nip you with their powerful claws. Juveniles tend to have black eyes, and gradually as they grow up, their eyes turn red. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Black, Yellow, Grey

The camouflage is placed on hook shaped hairs on the carapace using a glue-like substance that is secreted through the crab's mouth. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Using the oils from fish, Using an oily substance produced from the crabs tear ducts, By turning ocean sand into a sticky glue-like substance

While some daphnia are shaped roughly like fleas, and distantly related to all insects, they certainly do not bite or suck blood as parasites. The reason they are called fleas is the way they appear to jump through the water in sudden jerks. Difficulty: Hard.

 

They are directly related to fleas, They bite other animals, They look like fleas

Larger crabs, measuring ten to eleven inches, have been seen by survey performers. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Three feet, Six inches, Two feet

Wild hermit crabs have a huge variety of things they will eat. Some other things include worms and fish eggs. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Leaves and foliage, Decaying meat, Plankton

Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of taxonomy, taxonomy being the way animals are classified and grouped together. Linnaeus was not the first to name the species, but his scientific classification (renamed as Burgis latro) is the one used in present times. Previously, the species had been Cancer crumenatus. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Tycho Brahe

The decorator crab can be found in subtidal waters up to a depth of 1,439 feet. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Among coral reefs, In freshwater lakes and streams, Usually in or around schools of fish

The cause of the jumping movement while swimming is the large second antennae which are used to propel the daphnia through water. It could be compared with the butterfly stroke which has similar effects. Difficulty: Hard.

 

First antennae, Front legs, Rear legs

The pink dot is actually the new shell appearing under the old. Within a week the crab will molt and shed its shell. The crab does this several times in its lifespan as it grows. Difficulty: Hard.

 

The crab has mated and is ready to spawn., The crab is marked by surveyors and should not be harvested., The crab is not a blue crab, but an Asian relative being introduced into the Chesapeake Bay.

While many people think hermit crabs look like spiders, they actually have very few similarities. Difficulty: Average.

 

Arachnida, Amorphic, Nocturnal

While robber crabs are not normally poisonous, they can be if they ate fruit that is toxic to humans. Native people from various South Pacific islands consume the robber crab on occasion, but it is not a major part of any culture's diet. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Robber crabs eat poisonous spiders, Humans cannot digest robber crabs, Robber crabs taste like sour milk

Clawed lobsters belong to the order of decapods, meaning ten feet. When just looking at a lobster, you might think you count only eight feet. This is because their front legs have evolved into the claws, but they are still considered feet and not hands. Difficulty: Hard.

 

8, 2, 12

The decorator crab is also known as the graceful decorator crab due to its graceful nature and surprising ability to use its surroundings to blend in. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Sponge crab, Oval spider crab, Rough shore crab

The main purpose of the legs is to direct the current into their digestive tract, feeding on most unicellular material that comes in. The front two pairs of legs also act as filters to keep larger material out. The swimming is mainly carried out by the antennae. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Swimming, Walking when out of water, They are vestigial with little function

The two front claws are not used for locomotion. The larger is used for defense while the smaller is used to bring food to the mouth. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Killepod, Defense Claw, "The finger"

In general, crabs have long antennae because they live in water and need the extra length to smell food in water. Robber crabs, however, live on land and do not need the length. The sense of smell is one of the robber crabs' most developed, but it has a fairly small and undeveloped brain. Scientists compare the antennae of the robber crabs to those of insects. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Robber crabs do not have antennae, Robbert crabs' are much longer, All species of crabs have about the same size antennae

The hind 2 pairs of a hermit crab's legs are usually inside the shell, used for grasping the borrowed shell. Difficulty: Hard.

 

8, 6, 12

Robber crabs on Christmas Island are genetically different from other robber crabs. Australia had protected the crabs on the island until around 2001 when the government started using the island as a temporary immigration detention center. When a permanent complex was built in 2005, the robber crabs started being crushed by vehicles and experienced loss of habitat. Between January 2010 and November 2014, over 3,400 robber crabs had been killed on the island by traffic directly related to the immigration center, according to Max Orchard, an conservation activist. Difficulty: Hard.

 

An influx of sea serpents, Bullfrogs over running the island, Active nuclear missiles struck the island

Shrimp have lamellar gills (meaning thin and plate-like), whereas prawns have branching gills. The simplest way to visually distinguish a shrimp from a prawn, though, is by looking at the second abdominal segment. In shrimps, the second segment overlaps both the first and third segments. The second abdominal segment of a prawn overlaps only the third segment. Difficulty: Hard.

 

The gill structure, The abdominal segment, Neither of these

Spider crabs have triangular shaped shells. Crabs such as the marbled rock crab have very square shells. I'll bet you can guess what shape the shell of the circular crab is! Difficulty: Hard.

 

Square, Circular, Hexagonal

The decorator crab falls into the spider crab family just as its relatives like the kelp crab, sheep crab and dungeness crab do. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Portunidae (swimming crabs), Cancridae (edible crabs), Grapsidae (shore crabs)

Like most hard shelled creatures and many reptiles the outer skin does not grow with the body so each time it becomes too tight it is shed several times until they reach adult size. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Gradually, They go through metamorphosis, They don't grow

Two claws, two backfins, and six feelers. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Six, Eight, Twelve

Robber crabs are like hermit crabs in that it will shed its shell once it become too big for it and needs a new one. When it comes time for the robber crab to molt, it hides underground until its abdomen hardens as extra protection while it finds a new shell or uses a makeshift one. Difficulty: Hard.

 

It will die, It will fight another robber crab for its shell, It will bury itself in the sand until grows a new one

The American lobster is very similar to its European counterpart, and rare examples of the American lobster have even been found off the south coast of England! European lobsters can grow to over 1 metre in length, and by that time, keel worms and barnacles have colonised on the hard shell. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Homarus pacificus, Homarus caribbeanicus, Homarus atlantica

Hermit crabs will remain in a still position while they are molting. During the molting process it is a good sign when the exoskeleton falls off, and is not a sign of death. Crabs usually will not swell up when they die. One sign of death is a foul odor that becomes strong within a few days after death. Difficulty: Hard.

 

the hermit crab will remain in a still position, the hermit crab will swell up, the hermit crab's exoskeleton will fall off