Horseshoe Crab Shedding
/The big excitement when I volunteered at the Robinson Nature Center Touch Tank last week was watching a horseshoe crab shed it’s outer shell. When I first came in, I was surprised that one of the horseshoe crabs was on the top of the sand rather than buried underneath like they usually are. Then – over the course of about an hour the crab shed….moving relatively quickly in the last 15 minutes. The first place the process is visible is at the top front edge. I took pictures along the way from two perspectives so that it’s possible to see the upper shell separating and the legs/body underneath.
Finally, the main part of the crab was free of the shed although the shed was still resting on its tail
I took a sequence that shows that the tail is very flexible when the crab is newly shed. Its shell is soft as well. We don’t pick up or touch the horseshoe crabs that are shedding or newly shed.
We moved a nearby rock and the shed floated a short distance away. The horseshoe crab was still on the surface of the sand and its shell was probably beginning to harden. This would be a vulnerable time for the horseshoe crab in the wild. The shed was upside down in the tank, showing part that had covered the legs and body of the crab. The shed is almost clear…with some brownish highlights.
It was an interesting sight to everyone that was in the Discovery Room at the time….doesn’t happen all that often.
