blue crab

these omnivorous little guys are favoured by seafood lovers for their sweet, sweet flesh. their latin names actually mean "savoury beautiful swimmer." the blue / sapphire colour of their pincers lends to their english names although females have streaks of red to them as well. like some of the seafood humans eat, crabs are bottom feeders. we don't eat many land bottom feeders though, do we? these crabs will eat just about anything including other, smaller blue crabs. cannibals! while highly senstive to their environments, these crabs are great swimmers as they're equipped with paddles on their hind legs (of which there are ten). they can be found in coastal canada all the way down to south america. callinectes sapidus in moleskine.