Belize Treasures - Arrow crabs and two kinds of lobsters.

Today, let's look at a few crustaceans we saw while snorkeling at Turneffe Atoll, about 35 miles (56 km) off the coast of Belize.

First, the arrow crab. This bizarre creature appears to be all legs. PHOTO ONE is an arrow crab I saw crawling on a boulder coral.

See what I mean? All legs. During the day, these long-legged critters hang around inside the openings of sponges, among the tentacles of anemones, and on corals. At night, they skitter around and feed on whatever tiny stuff they can find. Sometimes these crabs will decorate their bodies with bits of algae and sponges to make it harder for predators to see them.

PHOTO TWO is an arrow crab Trish was holding in her hands:

Now let's look at two species of lobsters. PHOTO THREE is the Caribbean spiny lobster, sometimes called the rock lobster. During the lobster season (July 1 through February 28), many of these huge crustaceans are harvested, and Belizeans have grand lobster festivals to celebrate the opening of the season.

We saw a number of these magnificent crustaceans, but this one came right out from its coral hiding place as if it wanted to pose for a photo.

Unlike the Maine (or Canadian) lobster and the European lobster, which have massive crusher claws (called chelae, for cracking open the hard shells of their prey), spiny lobsters have no claws on their front pair of legs. But... although they lack large claws, they have impressively long antennae. I've seen some spiny lobsters with antennae close to a meter long.

Caribbean spiny lobsters average about two pounds, but they sometimes grow to fifteen pounds (7 kg).

Fossils of spiny lobsters show that they have not changed much structurally in at least 110 million years.

Interestingly, in Australia and the surrounding islands, people refer to spiny lobsters as crayfish. Here in North America, we use the name crayfish for a group of much smaller (but structurally similar) freshwater crustaceans.

Finally, we also saw several Spanish lobsters (a type of slipper lobster), which are odd-looking relatives of the spiny lobster. Spanish lobsters are shy and often difficult to photograph. See PHOTO FOUR.

Two striking features you can see in this photo: first, notice the two tiny, blue antennae that have forked ends? These help the lobster sense its surroundings. Second, notice the flat, shovel-like things that extend out in front of the eyes? These are modified antennae, and the lobsters use them to dig in the sand to find food and to escape predators.

Those shovel structures are why some people call these shovel-nosed lobsters or bulldozers.

There you go... a few interesting crustaceans of the Caribbean!

Photo credits:
All photos by Stan C. Smith