Yike! Imagine finding this crawling on your bin. Or in your bath! I thought it was time we had a real monster on Monstrous Monday. This is a Coconut Crab, which is found on many islands in the Pacific. It's also known as the Robber Crab because it allegedly has a habit of creeping into houses and stealing shiny things. Professor Wiki tells me that its Latin name is Birgus latro and that it is the biggest arthropod on Earth and probably about as big as any creature with a exoskeleton can get living on dry land. Those enormous pincers are used to crack coconuts, hence its name, but injuries to humans are very unusual (although in theory it can snap your arm off, or worse still mistake your sleeping head for a coconut).
Monday, 24 May 2010
Monstrous Monday
Yike! Imagine finding this crawling on your bin. Or in your bath! I thought it was time we had a real monster on Monstrous Monday. This is a Coconut Crab, which is found on many islands in the Pacific. It's also known as the Robber Crab because it allegedly has a habit of creeping into houses and stealing shiny things. Professor Wiki tells me that its Latin name is Birgus latro and that it is the biggest arthropod on Earth and probably about as big as any creature with a exoskeleton can get living on dry land. Those enormous pincers are used to crack coconuts, hence its name, but injuries to humans are very unusual (although in theory it can snap your arm off, or worse still mistake your sleeping head for a coconut).
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