Crustacea: Decapoda (crabs, shrimps, lobsters, crayfish)

[brontodocus]

IC Hermit Crab photo urls fixed.

[brontodocus]

Sally Lightfoot Crab walk-around photos are visible again.

[bmathison1972]

I have re-uploaded these images to Postimage

[bmathison1972]

I have re-uploaded these to Postimage

[bmathison1972]

I have re-uploaded these to Postimage.

[widukind]

A interesting figurine

[bmathison1972]

I have recaptured these images for Postimage.

Also, since the original post, Epoch (2016) released three small figures of bee shrimp, so Aquakitz is no longer the only maker of this species.

[bmathison1972]

This is one of the reviews of those odd, more novelty-type figures, a spiny lobster, Panulirus sp. by Aquatop. Aquatop specializes in aquarium accessories and this is intended to be displayed in an aquarium as decor. They make a few other animals including jellyfish and a Mandarin goby! Sphyrna18 alerted me to this on eBay and it was not too expensive, so I decided to give it a try, and I am glad I did! Interesting timing, too, as it appears Safari LTD will be releasing one this year. Will be interesting to see whose is more accurate...

The figure is 100 mm long, not including legs or antennae. So, it is larger than a gashapon-style figure, but smaller what what one usually gets with Safari Incredible Creatures crustaceans. It is essentially a solid piece TPR (rather than the usual PVC), although the tail segments could pop off if pulled on firmly, as the tail is fully articulated so it can appear to move when in water. There is a suction cup on the underside (that I removed, of course) to attach to the side of an aquarium or bury in aquarium gravel. Other than the articulated tail, the legs and antennae are rather stiff. It is advertised to glow under UV light (probably the hot pink parts). I bought the red version, but it also comes in blue and teal (I might invest in another if I can associate it with a precise species).

I am not an expert on spiny lobsters but the dorsal surface texture and detail is amazing for aquarium decor. I am not sure what species, if any, it is attended to be. From what I can tell, spiny lobsters have a fairly uniform morphology among the species, and as I said I am not a specialist in this group.

On to the figures:

[sphyrna18]

Great review and great pictures, as usual Blaine!!  I'm glad I was able to point you in the direction of a good "figure".... you can never really tell with aquarium decor pieces.  Sometimes they really do lack all detail.  I think it looks great!

[bmathison1972]

Walk-around of the coconut crab, Birgus latro (Linnaeus, 1767) by Colorata, Yanbaru Creatures, No. 8, new for 2017. The coconut crab is the largest terrestrial hermit crab (but only their young utilize an abandoned mollusk shell for protection). It occurs on many islands throughout the Indian and South Pacific Oceans, including Japan, hence it's inclusion in a set of animals from Yanbaru, a forested region of Okinawa Island.

Colorata figures are hard to get individually. I had to buy the whole set. Luckily I found a buyer on STS forum to take the remainders. I sold him the six non-arthropods for half the cost of the set. Still, I saved money this way rather than if I had I bought them individually (and who knows when that opportunity would have come along). I let him have the collector's box but since I paid the fees, I took the booklet .

The figure is a single-piece of plastic. Based on the carapace width (20 mm), the figure is roughly 1:10 in size. It comes with a nicely-detailed habitat-style base. Small holes on the underside of the crab and the upper side of the base allow it to be snugly, yet not permanently, attached to is base. The rod is clear and can be cut to the desired length.

Coconut crabs are surprisingly rare as toys. This is only my fourth, the others being by Epoch (Poisonous Creatures - yes, despite that this crab is a delicacy, it can be poisonous to eat depending on its diet), Yujin (Shrimps and Crabs Collection), and Kaiyodo (Okinawa Figure Collection).

On to the pics:











Finally, its page from the accompanying booklet:

[bmathison1972]

Walkaround of the floral egg crab, Atergatis floridus (Linnaeus, 1767) by Epoch, Poisonous Creatures (unknown date). I think the official name of the set may have been 'The Poison'. My translating software isn't being consistent. Atergatis floridus is distributed from southeast Asia to Australia to Hawaii, where it lives on coral and rocky shores. The species epithet floridus refers to the floral pattern on its carapace; it does not occur in Florida nor the southeastern United States (at least natively). If you wonder why a crab was included in a set of poisonous creatures (there were two actually, including a coconut crab), it is because this species can be very poisonous when eaten!

This figure has been a Holy Grail figure of mine. All three arthropods in the set, but this one in particular because it is a 'unique' species! The other arthropods were the aforementioned coconot crab and an emperor scorpion. There was also three kinds of poison dart frogs, a Gila monster, and a cow fish. The 'secret' was a cooked coconut crab on a platter.

The figure, unlike the other two arthropods in the set, is solid-piece of PVC. The carapace is 30 mm across, making it 1:3 for an average-sized specimen. It comes with a half-eaten fish prey (that does not attach to it). Unlike other figures in the set, it does not come with a base. Bases for Epoch figures usually do not have a means of secure attachment.

On to the pics:

[bmathison1972]

Someone on STS wanted a comparison shot of the coconut crab figures, so here they are (given Safari's run of crustaceans, might we see one of these one day?):

1. Yujin (Shrimps and Crabs Collection)
2. Colorata (Yanbaru Creatures)
3. Kaiyodo (Okinawa Collection)
4. Epoch (Poisonous Creatures)

[brontodocus]

Quite nice and crisp detail on this one, especially since the Colorata figures are quite soft!

[brontodocus]

Oh, and I almost thought we would have the rare occasion of bryozoans represented in figure form - or at least printed on a figure!

[bmathison1972]

Oh, and I almost thought we would have the rare occasion of bryozoans represented in figure form - or at least printed on a figure!

Is that what the lace-like structures are? I thought it was their natural pattern. I cannot find any reference to them being some kind of symbiotic or phoretic organism?!?

[brontodocus]

Oh, and I almost thought we would have the rare occasion of bryozoans represented in figure form - or at least printed on a figure!

Is that what the lace-like structures are? I thought it was their natural pattern. I cannot find any reference to them being some kind of symbiotic or phoretic organism?!?

No, actually I think you got it right in the first place, I think it's meant to be the colour pattern instead of bryozoans. That was only my first thought...

[Beetle guy]

Nice collection!! Also reminds me I have to make a nice diodorama display one day!

[bmathison1972]

Classy Crabs!

Today we visit some classic figures from one of the most popular brands by toy animal collectors, Play Visions. PV figures are generally much sought-after and can sometimes be quite expensive.

center: Sally lightfoot crab, Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the Galapagos Island Wildlife set.

clockwise from top [all from the Habitat Earth: Crabs set]:

1. blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896
2. Mexican fiddler crab, Leptuca crenulata (Lockington, 1877)
3. Mexican spider crab, Libinia mexicana Rathbun, 1892
4. purple globe crab, Randallia ornata (Randall, 1840)
5. helmet crab, Telmessus cheiragonus (Tilesius, 1812)
6. winged kelp crab (pear crab) Epialtoides hiltoni (Rathbun, 1923)
7. Alaskan king crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus (Tilesius, 1815)
8. striped shore crab, Pachygrapsus crassipes (Randall, 1840)

[bmathison1972]

Bottlecap Beauties! Capsule Crustaceans!

Today we take a brief look at the decapods produced by Kaiyodo for various bottlecap series. Many of these were released for various aquariums in Japan. They were usually parts of sets that included all kinds of marine/aquatic animals. Most of the sets included at least one crustacean (there are a couple non-decapods as well, not shown here).

back row, left to right:
1. blue swimmer crab, Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Enoshima Aquarium)
2. spiny lobster, Panulirus brunneiflagellum Sekiguchi and George, 2005 (Sumida Aquarium)
3. horsehair crab, Erimacrus isenbeckii (Brandt, 1848) [unknown series]
4. Japanese spiny lobster, Panulirus japonicus von Siebold, 1824 (Enoshima Aquarium)
5. red frog crab, Ranina ranina (Linnaeus, 1758) (Shingawa Aquarium)
6. long-legged spiny lobster, Panulirus longipes (Milne-Edwards, 1868) (Enoshima Aquarium)
7. box crab, Calappa lophos (Herbst, 1792) (Aquatales)

bottom row, left to right:
1. Tasmanian giant crab, Pseudocarcinus gigas (Lamarck, 1819) (Shinagawa Aquarium)
2. Alaskan king crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus (Tilesius,1815) (Hokkaido Figure Winter Version)
3. freshwater crab, Geothelphusa dehanni (White, 1847) (Birdtales)
4. Japanese tiger prawn, Penaeus (=Marsupenaeus) japonicus Spence Bate, 1888 (Enoshima Aquarium)
5. Maine lobster, Homarus americanus Milne-Edwards, 1837 (Enoshima Aquarium)

[bmathison1972]

Unique Decapods!

Today's post will focus on 'unique' species; i.e. species that are represented by only one example in toy/model/figure form. This post today does not include some species previously shown in this thread (e.g., some of the Play Visions crabs are unique) or examples from speciose genera (e.g., Panulirus, Portunus) that will probabaly be covered in more detail later. It also focuses on smaller figures (e.g., tube/TOOB or gashapon-sized figures).

It is not all-inclusive, but rather a sampling:

Back (elevated) row, left to right:
1. scarlet cleaner shrimp, Lysmata debelius Bruce, 1893 (Koro Koro - Toba Aquarium)
2. mud-flat crab, Chasmagnathus convexus (De Haan, 1835) (Wing Mau - Aquatic Museum) EDIT 2/7/2018: I just realized I photographed the wrong figure - LOL - this is a red-claw crab! I will image a correct one for a complete Wing Mau set (previously reviewed here: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=2020.msg16717#msg16717)
3. hydrothermal vent squat lobster, Shinkaia crosnieri Baba and Williams, 1998 (Colorata - Deep Sea Creatures)
4. Yunohana crab, Galdalfus yunohana (Takeda, Hashimoto, and Ohta, 2000) (Colorata - Deep Sea Creatures)
5. Tasmanian giant crab, Pseudocarcinus gigas (Lamarck, 1818) (Kaiyodo - Skinagawa Aquarium)

Second row, left to right:
1. samurai crab, Heikeopsis japonica (von Siebold, 1824) (Kaiyodo - Capsule Q Museum: Japanese Crabs Collection)
2. batwing coral crab, Carpilius corallinus (Herbst, 1783) (K&M International - Coral Reef Nature Tube)
3. Pulalius sp. (Safari LTD - Ancient Fossils TOOB)

Third row, left to right:
1. sponge crab, Stimdromia lateralis (Gray, 1831) (Cadbury - Yowies, Australian series)
2. red egg crab, Atergatis integerrimus (Lamarck, 1818) (Koro Koro - Toba Aquarium)
3. floral egg crab, Atergatis floridus (Linnaeus, 1767) (Epoch - The Poison)
4. harlequin shrimp, Hymenocera picta Dana, 1852 (Epoch)

Bottom row, left to right:
1. box lobster, Linuparus trigonus (von Siebold, 1824) (Kaiyodo - Choco Q Animatales)
2. Mexican dwarf crayfish, Cambarellus patzcuarensis Villalobos, 1943 (Banjihan ACE) [this was in a set of six, same sculpt but different color variants, but considered unique here since I am unaware of other sculpts]
3. lake prawn, Palaemon paucidens de Haan, 1844 (Yujin - Shrimps and Crabs Collection)