Monday, June 17, 2013

Green eyed monster

I never realized before that purple shore crabs have green eyes.

Purple shore crab, Boundary Bay.

This was a big crab, as shore crabs go, totally unafraid of me, not even bothering to threaten me as I prodded him into better light. Big enough to defend himself against anything on that beach, he's completely confident of his invulnerability. But watch out for gulls, Professor Plum; your weapons don't intimidate them!

Perhaps because of his size, I was also able to see the hinges on his legs and pincers; they're green, too.

4 comments:

  1. Fabulous picture

    He does look smug

    Is the green from Hemocyanin?

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  2. That is one of the things I really love about macro photos - you can always find something new, when you are looking that closely...

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  3. What a treasure and a great find, too!
    Cheers from Cottage Country!

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  4. Upupaepops, I had to look it up. It does look like hemocyanin gives him his colour. The purple of the shell is also from hemocyanin.

    Thanks for giving me something new to learn!

    Judy; True; the camera is so much better than my eyes, and it gives me time to look things over, too.

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I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

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