If a midnight stroll by the rocky intertidal of the pristine Andaman island is interrupted by a pair of bloodshot eyes, glowing bright under your flashlight – congratulations! You have met the Red-eyed rock crab, Eriphia sebana.
Photo credit: Aditya Gadkari, Natural Bridge, Shaheed Dweep.
Lazing by the day in coral crevices or sheltered in mangrove roots, it emerges by night, scurrying stealthily across reef flats in search of snails, molluscs and other hard-shelled delicacies which it loves to feed on. Armed with robust, muscular, asymmetric claws, it cracks open their tough shells with the longer (right) master pincer and then proceeds to feast on their soft meat with its left.
Adapted to camouflage seamlessly with its greenish tinted carapace, it resembles the mossy algal growth on corals, until it starts to move. When met with provocation, this nocturnal predator promptly transforms into Kung-Fu mode, swaying its arms menacingly at its opponent – an affirmative display that unlike other crabs who bury themselves quickly in the sand, it does not back down without a fight