The story of the universe. Volume 4 (of 4) : $b The earth's creatures : fauna
History
The story of the universe. Volume 4 (of 4) : $b The earth's creatures : fauna
Astronomy; Earth (Planet); Natural history
There are, first, cases in which the will of the animal does not
intervene, or at least is very slightly manifested. The creature
is found covered and protected by foreign bodies which are often
living beings. Spider-crabs (Maïa), for example, have their carapaces
covered with algæ and hydroids of all sorts. Thus garnished, the
Crustaceans have the advantage of not being recognized from afar when
they go hunting, since beneath this fleece they resemble some rock.
H. Fol has observed at Villefranche-sur-Mer a Maïa so buried beneath
this vegetation that it was impossible at first sight to distinguish
it from the stones around. Under these conditions the animal submits
to a shelter rather than creates it. Yet it is not so passive as one
might at first be led to suppose. When the algæ which flourish on
its back become too long and impede or delay its progress, it tears
them off with its claws and thoroughly cleans itself. The carapace
being quite clean, the animal finds itself too smooth and too easy
to distinguish from surrounding objects; it therefore takes up again
fragments of algæ and replaces them where they do not delay to take
root like cuttings and to flourish anew.
The sponge-crab (Dromia vulgaris) also practices this method of
shelter. It seizes a large sponge and maintains it firmly over its
carapace with the help of the posterior pair of limbs. The sponge
continues to prosper and to spread over the Crustacean who has
adopted it. The two beings do not seem to be definitely fixed to
each other; the contact of a sudden wave will separate them. When
the divorce is effected, the Dromia immediately throws itself on its
cherished covering and replaces it. M. Künckel d’Herculais tells
of one of these curious Crustaceans which delighted the workers
in the laboratory of Concarneau. The need for covering themselves
experienced by these crabs is so strong that in aquariums when their
sponge is taken away they will apply to the back a fragment of wrack
or of anything which comes to hand. A little white cloak with the
arms of Brittany was manufactured for one of these captives, and it
was very amusing to see him put on his overcoat when he had nothing
else wherewith to cover himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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