The Tale of the Broad Fronted Crab and Other Delights

    The coral spawning quarantine that closed Kahalu'u to snorkelers (but not surfers) ended today.  Accordingly, after a quick stop at Long's Drugs for a box of frozen hamburgers, Sandra and I took the swooping drive down to Kahalu'u.  It was a drop dead gorgeous

Snowflake Moray Eel,  May 2020.  Welcome to Kahalu'u

morning, with rain forecasted for the afternoon.  Of late, this has been our expected weather situation.  

    We had timed our arrival to correspond with the tide and at 10 AM there was plenty of water.  As I was putting on my fins, I was joined by a small snowflake moray eel who was looking for his breakfast among the rocks of the entry.  Out in the bay, as I finished adjusting my flippers, I saw another small snowflake poking his nose out of a rocky crevice.  Seems like Mrs.Snowflake has been busy.  In the wintertime my soulmate likes to sing a song about Suzy Snowflake.  Who knew that this playful child of winter was an eel?   Here is a link if you would like to step back into Sandra's childhood:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEe6KOWdbUs

   Our usual path involves hitting the coral heads out a bit, and at the seaward from the entry.

An Unusual Broad Fronted Crab, John Earle and John Hoover

  At the second coral head we hit pay dirt.  Dodging in and out from the shelter of a large piece of debris was a small crab, deep brownish red, with a few white spots on the carapace and white stripes on the legs.  Sandra and I both got a look at this crab which we thought was just less than two inches across the carapace.  I took a couple attempts at getting a picture, but precious little was visible when he hunkered down.  I backed off and hoped he would come out for a shot.  As it happened, he scuttled across the small opening, providing two seconds of complete visibility.  A good look, but not one suited to photography.

  Back at the ranch I repaired first to John Hoover's Sea Creatures... thus identifying this small furtive crab as a broad fronted crab.  I first saw this crab a year ago, also at Kahalu'u and if you have nothing better to do, you can look at the blog form March 3, 2019 for the

Professeur Joseph Poupin

gory details.  I didn't get as good a look  in 2019, but I took a marginally better picture. The picture in John Hoover's book isn't all that good, so I checked on the internet for a better one.  Not surprisingly, I ended up in the crab section of John's web site.  Here I found a slightly unusual picture of this species and the following account by the Great Oz, himself:

    John Earle captured this crab on video at the Lanai Lookout, Oahu. Dr. Peter Ng identified it as a species of the genus Xanthias. Dr. Joseph Poupin further identified it as Xanthias latifrons. There is already a photo of X. latifrons in my book Hawaii's Sea Creatures, but it shows a specimen with a slightly different color pattern.

    For those of you with memories like an elephant seal, you might recall that Joseph Poupin is a world famous carcinologist and a professor at the Ecole Navale in Brest, France.  Ever so long ago, in 2006 and 2007,  he assisted Patsy McLaughlin as we identified Calcinus revi (a tiny white hermit crab) we found on the reef in front of Alii Villas.  This was a new species for the Hawaiian Islands, for the entire United States, in fact.  And at this juncture, I must give credit to Sandra who did the computer search that was crucial in setting this identification in motion.   For a year or two the professeur called me Jeff and I called him Joseph.  And everyone called Sandra la petite fleur de mer.  

     Patsy is now identifying the crabs she finds under the rocks on St.

Strawberry Drupe Drupa rubusidaeus   Kahalu'u   May 2020

Peter's Beach.  Its good to see that Professerr Poupin is still on this side of the sea cucumbers.  

    Back in the bay closer to the Menehune Breakwater I spotted a strawberry drupe.  A few months ago, this was a life mollusc.  You may recall the beautiful golden operculum and the lovely rose around the aperture borne by this medium sized sea snail.  This one was roughly the size of one of those tangerines you buy in an onion sack at Costco.  I can not attest to its taste, although its difficult to believe that the Hawaiians would not eat it, given the opportunity. 

    Hoover says it lives on deeper shelves.  This year we are finding it in shallow protected waters.  

     This guy had a strong grip on its chunk of dead coral and Sandra and I decided to leave it in peace.  Pax vobiscum, Signore Fragole.  

    We were seeing lots of our friendly fishes as we made the circuit.  Out near the Rescue Shelter I ran across a large triton shell with just  a hint of the leg of an elegant hermit crab.  This was a big shell, the size often carried by large blood crabs.   The crab inside was about as big as I have seen for this species.    The elegant hermit crab, Ca. elegans,  is an

Elegant Hermit Crab, Kahalu'u  May 2020

intermediate sized hermit crab.  John Hoover tells us that it can achieve a carapace of about 2 cm, while most of the other hermits you will see mentioned here, the hidden, Hazlett's and Guam, are only a third that size.  The one we kept  as a pet at Alii Villas was known as the Mikado.

     This brute did not get a pass.  In spite of a significant current and waves bouncing me around, I manipulated the large triton shell onto an exposed piece of coral.  Luckily Sandra was there to help with the camera and the spotting.  Together we worked this elegant subject for about five minutes, lots of diving and holding on following which it was time to head in.  And I ask you, doesn't he look like a Mikado?

   We had a delightful time at Kahlu'u and I'm sure we will enjoy those frozen hamburgers.  I hope the quarantine is treating you well.  If you have crab for dinner, raise a toast to the Mikado.  

Cheers,
jeff