ROBBER CRAB

also called Coconut Crab (Birgus latro), large, nocturnal land crab of the southwest Pacific and Indian oceans. It is closely related to the hermit crab (q.v.), belonging to the same family, Coenobitidae (order Decapoda of the class Crustacea). Adults are about 1 m (about 40 inches) from head to tail and weigh about 17 kg (37 pounds). The crab uses two large chelae, or pincers, to pound or chip open coconutsthe soft, white meat of which is its principal diet. The full-grown adult crab ranges from light violet to brown and deep purple. Young adults are brown, with black stripes on their legs. The female lays her ripe eggs in the sea, and they immediately hatch into zoeas, the first larval stage, which live in the water, feeding on small organisms. After 20 to 30 days the zoea develops into a glaucothoe, the intermediate stage, and leaves the water to live in a seashell for three or four weeks. It then discards the shell, buries itself in moist sand, and transforms into a small adult. Although robber crabs can climb trees, they apparently eat only coconuts already on the ground. Most of the daylight hours are passed in burrows up to about 0.6 m (2 feet) deep, sometimes two crabs to a burrow. Its meat is a local delicacy.