Halloween is upon us so we thought we’d take the opportunity to tell you about some of the creatures with the creepiest Halloween themed names! Which one will be your favorite?
Bloody Henry Starfish
This starfish may have a spooky name but fear not (unless you are a sponge which is one of its favorite meals!) it’s not as creepy as its name suggests. It gets its name from being blood red but also comes in a variety of colours including purple and brown. They usually get up to 10cm long but have been known to be twice that size! These starfish are usually found a little deeper than your average rockpools and we tend to find them on our extreme rockpool safaris when we have a much lower tide.
Leach’s Spider Crab
This type of spider crab is very small with its carapace (top shell) only reaching 1.7cm across! This doesn’t include its legs of course which make it appear slightly bigger. The leach’s spider crab has a very unusual best friend… a snakelocks anemone! The spider crab is often found under or sitting in the snakelocks anemone and in some areas nearly every snakelocks anemone has its own crab living in it. Its not really known why the 2 live together but it whatever the reason it appears to be mutually beneficial!
Devil Crab
The Devil crab is one of the nicknames given to the velvet swimmer crab and its aggressive behavior and bright red eyes are a dead giveaway of how that nickname came to be. When threatened, devil crabs thrust their claws into the air to make themselves appear as big as possible and they are not afraid to put up a fight. Always be careful picking them up as their claws are quite strong and sharp. If you do manage it however, have a feel of the back of their shell and you will notice it feels like crushed velvet!
Sea Spider
This animal is not as commonly found in the rockpools, not because there aren’t many there but because they are small, thin and hard to spot! This type of sea spider has the common name ‘Gangly lancer’ and their long legs give the impression of a much more clumsy animal. When looking under rocks in rockpools it is always a good idea to watch for a minute before putting the rock back as you never know what may be under there, standing still and hoping not to be spotted.
