The Blue crab.
Otherwise know as Callinectes sapidus which translates to
"savory beautiful swimmer"
Beautiful indeed and fortunately I love to paint them.
I have for years asked people to tell me how to separate male and female.
"Easy ,just turn them over." I reply, nope, don't have to touch them!
You see, many years ago while crabbing with my husband of almost 4 decades,
he told me if you pick them up by the back flippers they can't pinch you.
Needless to say, you know very well what happened.
I grabbed a crab and it promptly and firmly planted itself on my thumb that was hanging down below the back of the crab. I hollered and flung that beautiful blue right back into the salty deep which is exactly where it wanted to go.
Back to the question and the answer.
How do you tell?
The girls "paint" their nails!
Females are red tipped, males are blue.
So now you know!
They call the waters from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, then further south near Uruguay and Argentina. Most people call them Maryland blue crab. Much like the liofish they have found their way as stowaways in ships ballasts. It was first seen off the coast of Egypt in the 1940's but they are now reported in Italy, Israel, Greece, and Turkey. Everyone is eating them!
The female blue will only mate once in her lifetime. The males mate multiple times.
Once they've mated, the female develops and egg mas which can contain as many as 2 million eggs. After two weeks they are released into the water and carried on the currents of the ocean. The zoea molt over 25 times in the process of growing to maturity.
They will eat, clams, mussels, snails, dead fish, plants and more. They will also eat other less mature crabs if they happen to get caught!
Hmmm..
Wonder if they would eat lionfish babies?
Feeling a little crabby II, Acrylic on 12 x 12 canvas,
Day 22 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2018
Beautiful creatures! Good eating as well.
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