Kinky Crab Love

I had just finished fishing in the bay, and I was standing on the shore waiting for Joe. I looked down and there were two horseshoe crabs swimming toward me. It was typical, the male was riding around on the back of the female. They swam around the shoreline for awhile and the female started burrowing down into the sand right at the edge of the water. It was pretty cool, they have kind of a hinged body and water and air shoots out from the middle of their back. At least it did from the female. So they're just hanging out when here comes another male. He circles around them once and then goes up and tries to push the other guy out of the way. The first guy ain't budging. The second guy weasels his way in sideways. These horseshoe crabs are having a threesome right in front of my eyes. What's this? Another male? Three on one, holy crap! After a few minutes the third guy realizes he's not getting much action so he swims off. The two guys that are still there keep pushing each other around to get the best position, but neither are giving up. I decided that I wanted to see what was going on under those shells. They were partially out of the water, so I got down on my hands and knees and tried to look under their shells. All I could really see were little legs moving around everywhere. I'm not sure what I thought I would see but I had to look nonetheless. Then I decided that I was going to see if I could take them apart. I didn't try too hard, because I didn't want to hurt them. It was clear they were hooked together good! The third little guy was still hanging around the area; waiting for sloppy thirds I guess, so I picked him up and looked under his shell. EEEEwwwwwe! They are kind of creppy looking. I decided to do a little research to find out how they...you know....Do It! Here are some interesting facts I learned about horseshoe crabs.
- They don't actually "Do It". The male; who incidently is 25 - 30% smaller than the female, attaches himself to the female by way of a special extra large claw. The male rides around attached to the female for months at a time. (talk about a freeloader). He stays attached until the female lays eggs in a nest and then he fertilizes them. So...if those two males stay attached to that one female and they both fertilize her eggs, she won't know who her baby daddy is. There is white trash, now there is crab trash.
- Their blood is blue because copper is a large component.
- When you see horseshoe crab shells washed up on a beach, it's not that they died, they shed their shells. Apparently that happens many times in the course of their lifetime which may be as much as 20 years.
- They are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to crabs. That explains why they are so creppy looking.
Who knew???

Check out the photo gallery for a closer look! By the way, I am wearing a shirt.