There aren’t many crustaceans their old skin. It’s thought that that enjoy the taste of their own these crustaceans gather together kind. But for giant spider crabs for a ‘safety-in-numbers’ approach during moulting season, the allure to protection during this vulnerable of soft and tasty crab meat is just part of their life cycle. Once the too great. Once a year, the seafloor crabs have moutled and stepped around Victoria, Australia, has a out of their exoskeletons, the new stampede of giant spider crabs exoskeleton that’s been growing (Leptomithrax gaimardii), gathered underneath is still soft – not yet in their thousands to moult their hard enough to protect them from hard exoskeletons. Around June, hungry predators. In a couple of Port Phillip in southern Victoria is days the new exoskeleton hardens littered with the discarded shells of and the crabs resume their spider crabs that have outgrown typically solitary lives.
Giant spider crabs marching in their thousands on the seafloor