More Friends in Armor 253 



evidence suggests that the female may have more than 

 one brood after a single meeting with the male, and 

 that she dies soon after her last bearing. The crab's 

 term of life is three years. 



To say that the fiddler crab grows when it molts 

 would be to express the reverse of what is true. The 

 fact is, the creature molts because it grows. The soft 

 tissues increase in content, but the hard, rigid armor Is 

 incapable of expansion; therefore this must be cast off. 

 In the process of shedding, a crack appears in the crust 

 along a line at the rear edge of the carapace. The 

 crab literally backs out through the opening thus 

 started, and as it does so It forces the carapace up, 

 extending the fissure on both sides to the front, making 

 Its egress easier. This operation is performed by a 

 series of peculiar rhythmic tremors, and it takes about 

 twenty minutes to accomplish. When the animal is 

 finally divested of its shell, it appears soft and wrinkled 

 on the surface, and, although it can walk, it is truly a 

 quite helpless individual. Were It not for the fact that 

 this critical period is passed in the saturated precincts 

 of Its cell, it would, besides running the chance of suc- 

 cumbing to the first evil passer-by, be subjected to con- 

 siderable discomfort in the rays of the sizzling sun 

 But it soon fills out and the skin begins to harden. A 

 day or so hence finds it once more sitting in the door- 

 way or picking at the sand. 



Molting has its advantages in other w^ays. If a 

 young crab has lost an appendage a new one appears 

 at the time of some successive casting of its armor. It 

 Is a common phenomenon among crustaceans to throw 

 off a leg or claw when the individual is seized by one 



