Metopaulias
| Metopaulias | |
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| Genus: | Metopaulias |
| Species: | M. depressus
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| Binomial name | |
| Metapaulias depressus Rathbun, 1896 [1]
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Metopaulias is a monotypic genus of fully terrestrial land crabs which do not require to go back to the sea to spawn. Metopaulias depressus is a reddish-brown crab about 2 centimetres (0.79 in) wide which lives in the pools of water which form in the leaves of bromeliads in Jamaica. The female lays about 90 eggs, then tends to her offspring, removing dead leaves which would deoxygenate the water and adding snail shells to the pool to provide high levels of calcium which they require, catching cockroaches and millipedes to feed them, and killing larvae of the damselfly Diceratobasis macrogaster which would otherwise eat them.[2]
References
- ^ a b Peter K. L. Ng, Danièle Guinot & Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286.
- ^ Olivia Judson (March 18, 2008). "Pineapple Dreams". The New York Times.
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