Happy Friday! The photo above is an Urchin Carry Crab (Dorippe frascone) doing what it is supposed to do: carry an urchin for camouflage – that’s how it got its common name. These particular crabs of the family Dorippidae, have modified back legs that they use to grip the urchins or other assorted matter like leaves or discarded shells. They are muck diving icons – we see them on many dives. Below is a picture of a crab that has gotten it all wrong. It is carrying a nudibranch! And things are going badly for the normally slow moving sea slug – it’s moving backwards; it’s moving upside down; it’s moving under the power of a very clumsy crab. From my 2002 BlennyWatcher video archives: “Nudibranch’s Bad Day.” (video below, at end of post)
