Tuesday Crustie: En garde!

There is a horror movie trope about the scientist who is far too curious for his own good, particularly where new animals are. It usually starts with something like, “Hey, little guy, what are you?” Of course, the animal turns out to be deadly and scientist’s curiosity immediately turns to terror or death.

Of course, there are reasons these things are clichés. I learned this about myself last week.

I had been out collecting sand crabs, and was driving back through Port Isabel. I saw something in the middle of the road, and I thought it looked like a crab. I debated with myself as to whether I should turn around to find out, which I did, and found this guy:

I was able to wrangle it off the middle of the road to an abandoned business front to take some pictures. And it took great pictures. It obviously had excellent vision, and wanted to keep its claws between me and the rest of its body, so it was always turning to face the camera.

I think this is something in the genus Ocypode, but am not sure.

Of course, I had take a selfie, idiot that I am. Why idiot? Let’s just say this picture could have this caption:

“Claw lock engaging in 3... 2... 1...”