Two weeks ago I was riding my motorcycle on a quiet road between two villages in Laiyi township. It was almost completely dark, and I saw what I thought was stone in the road, but then it began to move. On closer inspection it was a small crab, and it was quite lively, I thought, for being so far away from the sea. As I got off the bike to investigate, it moved quite quickly to the side of the road.
I googled “Taiwan land crab” and found some links to photos and some species names, but all of the locations cited for Epigrapsus Notatus were in the Hengchun peninsula or on Green Island, and nowhere near this far north. I took pictures that evening, but I really couldn’t convince myself that the crab I saw that night was E. Notatus. I had been thinking it was more likely part of someone’s planned dinner that bounced out of the back of a blue truck on it’s way to the village… until today.
Today my wife and I took a drive back up into the hills and went for a walk in the same location. We saw two crabs, and though my camera takes crappy pictures, I did manange to take some pictures and have made, I think, a positive id of E. Notatus. The small picture in the inset at the bottom is a picture of E. Notatus from a google search. http://www.cmas.org.tw/~fiddler/crab/list_cb/Epigrapsus_notatus.htm
Yup, I’ve seen them too.
where?
tee hee… those are cute…and odd In the mountains you say?
On Tigerhead Mountain in Taoyuan, if I remember correctly.
I heard the bars around Shida are also a good place to find crabs.
BTW, pretty cool about the land ones. I’ve never seen them. Will have to keep an eye out on the hikes.
You muppets!
those are crab lice! :loco:
Was there a water source nearby?
In the rift valley, south of Yuli there’s a place called Luo-shan that has a pretty impressive waterfall you can see from the main Hualien-Taidong road. At the base of these falls are literally hundreds of fresh water crabs like the ones in your photos, with the exception of being much more brightly colored (Red). I’ve never seen them outside that immediate area, but they must be much more common than I thought.
Very cool.
I’m sure there must be one, but it’s not a very large and obvious source in any case. The road is on a west-facing slope which runs parallel to a fast-runnig stream about 100 meters below, and the only place I saw them was in a 100 meter stretch of the road. The crabs aren’t very numerous there either, I walked for a mile or so in either direction yesterday and found none except the two previously mentioned. One of my questions is how many species of land crabs are there in Taiwan anyway? Were the crabs that the other posters saw also E. notatus?
MJB: if the ones you saw were bright red, it’s interesting to think it might be another kind of land crab, but I’m certainly not an invertebrate biologist and can’t say much more than that. There are some freshwater crabs which spend part of their time out of water, and are called amphibious crabs for that reason, but E. Notatus is a true land crab, and has specially adapted gills for 24-7 life on land.
[quote]REPRODUCTION OF EPIGRAPSUS NOTATUS (BRACHYURA: GECARCINIDAE) IN TAIWAN
Hung-Chang Liu,a and Ming-Shiou Jenga
aResearch Center for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan (HCL: E-mail: jengms@gate.sinica.edu.tw)
ABSTRACT
The population dynamics and reproduction of the land crab Epigrapsus notatus were studied at Hengchun Peninsula, Taiwan. [b]Epigrapsus is the most poorly known genus of the land crab family Gecarcinidae[/b], and differs from other gecarcinids in its much smaller size. [b]Epigrapsus notatus[/b] [b]leads a cryptic life[/b] [b]and is[/b] [b]seldom observed outside its burrow in the coastal forest[/b]. The only time it is commonly observed is when ovigerous females migrate to the shore to release larvae. The reproductive season of E. notatus is limited to two lunar months in September and October, a relative short time in comparison with other gecarcinid crabs. Ovigerous females begin releasing larvae 3–4 d after the full moon, for 3–7 d. Larval releases occur for about a 3-h period during and immediately after high tide. Ovigerous females shake their entire body to release larvae, a unique behavior not previously documented in brachyurans. Ovigerous females prefer to release larvae inside surge channels rather than on the exposed shore. The unusual larval release behavior and choice of surge channels as release sites are suggested as adaptations to life on land, to reduce the chances of being swept away by waves.[/quote]
Yep…them’s good eatin’…grilled up…a little bar-b-q sauce…MMmm…tastes like…chicken… 
Shouldn’t they taste more like…crab? 
Thanks TC, Josephus :bravo:
you can’t talk about animals for very long in Taiwan before someone asks how they taste… You gents understand Chinese culture! The tai tai says that land crabs don’t have much meat anyway, but that doesn’t mean they might make a good soup broth… 
I’m sure there must be one, but it’s not a very large and obvious source in any case. The road is on a west-facing slope which runs parallel to a fast-runnig stream about 100 meters below, and the only place I saw them was in a 100 meter stretch of the road. The crabs aren’t very numerous there either, I walked for a mile or so in either direction yesterday and found none except the two previously mentioned. One of my questions is how many species of land crabs are there in Taiwan anyway? Were the crabs that the other posters saw also E. notatus?
MJB: if the ones you saw were bright red, it’s interesting to think it might be another kind of land crab, but I’m certainly not an invertebrate biologist and can’t say much more than that. There are some freshwater crabs which spend part of their time out of water, and are called amphibious crabs for that reason[/quote]
The ones I see down there are amphibious, I usually see them in the pool at the base of the falls, and in a couple of smaller streams nearby. Size is about the same.
I’ve also saw them -just this week- in the Yuli area MJB mentioned.
Probably not true land crabs though, as I previously suggested. I’d really like to get an expert opinion on these critters. I put out a couple of e-mails to the authors of the academic paper that I linked to, but still have received no reply. Any pics from Yuli to share?
I have some pics from Yuli, but not of the crabs. I was taking a dip in a gorgeous moutain stream when I noticed them, thinking “are there really freshwater/land crabs up here???” But then I just accepted it as a fact, plunged underwater, swam over to the lip of the pool, and cracked open a beer.
Crikey, land crabs, that be the devils work I’m telling you.
Can you really eat 'em?
HG
No, I don’t think so. I was reading something on these a few weeks ago that said they are unedible.
My post re:their tasting like chicken was a take-off on a very old joke.
I would not reccomend eating those things unless its a matter of basic survival.