coconut crab for sale

The coconut crab for sale has been known to western scientists since the voyages of Francis Drake around 1580 and William Dampier around 1688. Based on an account by Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1705), who had called the animal “Cancer crumenatus“, Carl Linnaeus (1767) named the species Cancer latro, from the Latin latro, meaning “robber”.

The genus Birgus was erected in 1816 by William Elford Leach, containing only Linnaeus’ Cancer latro, which was thus renamed Birgus latro.

Birgus is classified in the family Coenobitidae, alongside one other genus, Coenobita, which contains terrestrial hermit crabs.

Common names for the species include coconut crab, robber crab, and palm thief, which mirrors the animal’s name in other European languages (e.g. German: Palmendieb). In Japan (where the species lives on some of the country’s southerly island chains), the species is typically referred to as yashigani (ヤシガニ), meaning ‘palm crab’.

The next two pairs of legs, as with other hermit crabs, are large, powerful walking legs with pointed tips that allow coconut crabs to climb vertical or even overhanging surfaces.

The fourth pair of legs is smaller, with tweezer-like chelae at the end allowing young coconut crabs to grip the inside of the shell or coconut husks that juveniles habitually carry for protection. Adults use this pair for walking and climbing.