Collected crabs
Observation Type: Timed survey
Molts/crabs found: Yes
Also submitting Dungeness crab molt data: Yes
Number of Dungeness crab molts found: 3
Sex of Dungeness crab #1: No abdomen present
Carapace width of Dungeness crab #1: 26
Sex of Dungeness crab #2: No abdomen present
Carapace width of Dungeness crab #2: 46
Sex of Dungeness crab #3: No abdomen present
Carapace width of Dungeness crab #3: 46
1 Comment. Leave new
Welcome to Molt Searching and thanks for sending in such a terrific first report! It’s always exciting when folks find such a huge amount of diversity on a single search like you have. Those tiny spider crabs are my favorite to find, but you’ve also tracked down both species of our native shore crab (hairy shore crab & purple shore crab) and a hairy helmet crab. Those larger oval-shaped crabs at the top are the tricky ones. The redder “empanada” shaped one at the very top with a protruding 5 bumps between the eyes (almost like a hat brim) is the red rock crab. And the two just below it are actually Dungeness crab’s more refined cousin, the native graceful crab. They have a very similar shape to Dungeness and are flat between their eyes like Dungeness (but unlike the red rock crab), but instead of being smooth from their back up to the widest 10th tooth, they have a small notch behind their widest 9th tooth that you can sometimes feel with your fingernail. Here’s some slides we’ve pulled together that shows these common tricky ones side-by-side: https://wsg.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/MEGRvCAPRvMEMA-Slides.pdf So glad to have you part of this important work with us and look forward to more reports to come! – Lisa