Horn-eyed Ghost Crab

The horneyed ghost crab (Ocypode brevicornis) is a big, deep-bodied beach crab with short points on its swollen eyestalks, and its males defend their ground with drumming and elaborate sideways dances. It is one of six ghost crabs found around the Indian subcontinent.

It lives close to deep burrows on the open sandy and gravelly beaches of the Indian Ocean, near the intertidal zone, between the Gulf of Oman and the Nicobar Islands by way of India and Sri Lanka.

Appearance

Adults have a shell 24 to 41mm long and 26 to 50mm wide, rough with scattered bumps and shaped almost like a trapezoid, narrowing towards the rear. The feature to check is the swollen eyestalks, which carry short points at the tips in adults, though young crabs have much shorter points or none. Like other ghost crabs it has one claw far larger than the other.

Colour is a mottled mix of yellow and brown. Males tend to be the brighter, particularly on the legs. Juveniles match their background so closely that they are very hard to pick out.

Behaviour

These crabs are mostly active at night, although they do come out by day. They are extremely quick and wary, sprinting for the burrow at the first hint of trouble, even when the intruder is still some 9m away. After dark you can get a good deal closer, though a light may still send them running.

Males are showy and territorial. They rap the larger claw on the ground to make sound and vibration, as other ghost crabs do. When another ghost crab comes near a male may rear up, then shuffle sideways in ever more complicated moves, and finish by running in circles round the intruder until it gives up and leaves.

Feeding

Generalists on the beach, they scavenge carrion and debris and also catch small animals.