Here's a photo of a cannonball jellyfish with a crab that was living inside. The crab is on the right side of the jellyfish, by the net. Photo courtesy of Tom Hartlage.
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com.
Today seems to be jellyfish day. This is the third post today about jellyfish. I just received an email from Tom Hartlage with the above photo attached taken at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Here is Tom’s jellyfish story:
We found this cannonball at Myrtle Beach while swimming. We scooped it up with the boogie board for closer inspection and found small crab legs sticking out and moving at that. I didn’t know anything about the cannonball when we found it, after releasing it and the crab I did some research to find out exactly what it was. That’s when I found your website. So I thought you might enjoy this picture of a live cannonball with a live crab that has just crawled out of it… Thanks for your info. Enjoy the pic.—tom
Photo (cropped) of a portly spider crab that is living inside the cannonball jellyfish. Photo courtesy of Tom Hartlage.
According to Wikipedia’s page on the cannonball jellyfish, the crab is a portly spider crab (Libinia emarginata), which is unharmed by the toxic mucus excreted by the jellyfish. The crab feeds on fish killed by the jellyfish.
Thanks, Tom, for the photo and the reference to Wikipedia’s information.
