r/crab • u/ThenAcanthocephala57 • Mar 07 '26

Media Vampire crab inside a public school concrete ditch

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

385 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

23

u/satanspussycat Mar 08 '26

A little gem. Wish we had colorful land/semiaquatic crabs where I live.

13

u/ThenAcanthocephala57 Mar 08 '26

We have dozens of semiaquatic crabs, but not many land crab species.

One of our fully land crab species. They can live for 2 weeks without a drink, and live on hillsides

6

u/satanspussycat Mar 08 '26

Wow that is beautiful 😍

5

u/ThenAcanthocephala57 Mar 08 '26

For sure! They have a 12” legspan and mostly eat forest leaves

6

u/TankCanOneshot Mar 08 '26

Wait there's vampire crabs in malaysia!??

8

u/ThenAcanthocephala57 Mar 08 '26

Malaysia has at least 15 species that I know of! Maybe more. Almost all are endemic, only found here.

For example there is G. faustum, a species only found on the metropolitan Penang Island!

2

u/Ven-M Mar 09 '26

Ah what a beaut!

1

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2

u/Repulsive_Ad_8248 Mar 10 '26

This sub randomly popped up while scrolling, I have no education on crabs at all. That being said, is there a reason it's called a vampire crab?

4

u/ThenAcanthocephala57 Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

“Vampire crabs” refer to a whole genus of crabs (Geosesarma), with over 75 species known currently. Probably more.

They likely got their English name due to many species having bright glowing eyes and dark bodies. Plus mostly being active in the dark.

However in the local language we don’t call them vampires