[Sca-cooks] chowder (crab sexing)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Joan Nicholson:
>Hi Kiri,
>
>This is for the Atlantic Blue Crab only, as I don't know the others...<grin>
>When you turn the crab over onto it's back, the carapace will show 1 of two
>distinct patterns.  The female has a triangular-shaped crease extending from
>the back of the shell forward almost to the middle of the front below the
>mouthparts. The male's crease is T-shaped, with the widest part at the back.
>The differences are quite noticeable. Hope this helps.
>
>Prydwen (crabby old ex-crab catcher)

This is all correct. The blue crab has a tail like a lobster, but it
is more or less permanently folded under the body shell, flush with
the belly, unlike the tail of a lobster or a shrimp. (It also has no
meat to it, give or take a shred. Mostly veiny ducts and the end of
the digestive tract.) There's a matching groove or indentation in the
underside of the shell, so it can lie flat against the belly of the
crab. The female crab, in spawning season, somehow accumulates the
eggs under that flap of tail shell, usually called an apron, and then
it stands away from the body of the crab, showing the eggs around the
edge.

The apron of the female crab looks more or less like home plate (the
baseball-type home plate, that is), while the apron of the male has a
narrow, long extension to it, that looks a little like a coal shovel
with its handle, and frankly, a bit like a penis. Which, since it is
part of the male's reproductive system, may not be all that
surprising...

Adamantius
--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER