Almost a year ago i stumbled apon a weird grapsidae crab from the coast of Big island, Hawai'i. At that point in my crab identifying journey I had known most of the grapsoidea (except for genus Percnon, which i constantly fail to identify properly) and all of the extant grapsidae of the islands. Grapsus tenuicrustratus, or the thin shelled rock crab is the largest of them. It has long, spidery legs with a carapace that reaches 3" in length. It is the most common grapsidae of Hawaii and is...

I was scrolling through iNaturalist observations of Land, shore marsh grapsoid crabs of West Africa this past Monday when I came across an observation of a small crab with weird laterally-compressed chelae. In my mind, I had identified it to the family Sesarmidae. It was so unique - I had never seen anything like that in any sesarmidae species, much less the whole subfamily of Grapsoidea. It didn't seem to fit morphologically any of the known genera from this area that were already recored on...

Our last trip of the year was be a weeklong trip in San Diego California. We will spend our time filming native lizards, crabs and other wildlife for a new film. Green anole I caught at San Diego Safari Park Another goal of the trip was to track the many invasive reptiles that have entered our state. These invasive reptiles have entered San Diego from places like Florida or even from the Old World like Asian and Europe. The main cause for this is the pet trade. People who no longer want their...