bookofjoe

Australia's Coconut Crab — The largest terrestrial arthropod in the world

"How would you like to find this on the side of your trash can!!!!!!! (or anywhere!!!!)."

"Our friends in Australia sent us these pictures of a coconut crab. This is pretty interesting....."

The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world. It is known for its ability to crack coconuts with its strong pincers in order to eat the contents. It is sometimes called the robber crab because some coconut crabs are rumored to steal shiny items such as pots and silverware from houses and tents. The first photo above gives you a good idea of how large these crabs are. In it, a coconut crab is seeking food from a black trash can.

The coconut crab is a large edible land crab related to the hermit crab, and is found in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. It eats coconuts for a living! How would you like to be on an island and come across a crab that is more than 3 feet from head to tail and weighs up to 40 pounds, with a pair of large pincers strong enough to open coconuts? They can climb trees too, but they only eat coconuts that have already fallen to the ground.

[via Flautist who received the above along with the photos from her brother and was kind enough to pass it along. She added, "The garbage collectors around here would never pick up again!"]

'Perhaps this is what the sky will be like at the end of the world' — Scarlett Thomas

Above, a line from the British author's now defunct blog, posted there on April 17, 2010.

The post — titled "Under the Volcanic Ash" — follows in its entirety.

Because of the volcanic ash, there are still no planes in the sky. It's the third day now. I have never seen a blue sky like this, completely unbroken by trails. It strikes me that this is what the sky must have been like for most of my ancestors. Perhaps this is what the sky will be like at the end of the world.

The daffodils (Narcissus spp.) have been and almost gone. Can flowers have a sense of humour? Maybe not. Daffodils around here seem always to be posing in absurd, slightly sulky scenes, like kids at a bus stop. There's one clump on my daily dog-walk where all the flowers are looking at the same thing: another daffodil, hanging its head and looking only at the grass at its base. A single clump in a big field made me laugh out loud when I drove past it last week. It just seemed so ridiculous, there on its own as if it had turned up for an event that no one said had been cancelled. Now the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) flowers are coming out everywhere, little sprays like confetti stuck to twigs. From a distance they look cobwebby, a thin white fabric draped over trees.

Later, buying oranges in the Co-op, I see all the tabloid headlines about the volcanic ash. One of them has made the volcano look like a face from a horror-film. Another tells us all to stay indoors or wear masks. But if we stay indoors we won't see the sky. It doesn't say that the sky is worth going out for.

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