New species of purple crab discovered in the Philippines

[xdivision_whitey]

Four new species of crab have been discovered in the Philippine island of Palawan. And one of the crabs truly stands out with its unusually bright purple shell.

National Geographic reports that the Insulamon palawanese may use its uniquely colored shell to help identify its own kind.

"It is known that crabs can discriminate colours. Therefore, it seems likely that the colouration has a signal function for the social behaviour, e.g. mating," Hendrik Freitag of the Senckenberg Museum of Zoology in Dresden, Germany told AFP.

"The particular violet coloration might just have evolved by chance, and must not necessarily have a very specific function or reason aside from being a general visual signal for recognition," Freitag told National Geographic. Freitag's report on the new species of crabs was published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.



Beautiful Crab


It so beautiful. To beautiful to eat or kill IMHO. I would like to breed them. If not have one for myself.

[cheekyone94]

It kinda cool looking and purple is my 2nd favourite colour

[Rosha Sunder]

wow amazing

[stormylane]

I never thought I'd call a crab pretty but..... it is.

[Lady Leopardess]

I read about them earlier. They are very pretty and that's saying something for crabs.

[HWB009]

that crab is way too groovy for me to eat. that is a sexy crab

[Rainclaw]

eek

Very nice crab.

[David2074]

I doubt many people will want to bother eating them because, "...the newly discovered crabs are quite small in stature, each from about an inch to two inches wide."

I gather from the article they are more of a land crab. I'm in WA state and when I think of crabs I think of the beach or ocean but the article says, "the greatest threat to the species is ongoing forest clearing for farming, mining and home building." which implies their main habitat is on land.

[Ashes Like Rain]

D...Does it taste good?

[DracoxisDiamond]

Awesome! 4laugh

[TeknologikPanik]

You know, I'm normally terrified of crabs.
I usually wouldn't find any bit of them attractive in any way.
But I've got to admit, that is a beautiful animal.

[Vosien]

great time to go to the filo's and hunt for beautiful crabs.

[Zahvan]

That's one funky crab!