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2010年10月29日星期五

谢谢你...小鬼蟹

一直以来,
天空之城有一位忠实的追风者,
无时无刻在追着我的新格文,
我真的感到非常感动和感激,
自己的信口开河,
天马行空,
可以得到她的认同,
我衷心地向她表示感谢...
这几天,
又来催我写新格文了,
哈哈,真的好抱歉让大家久等了,
收集了好多东西要写,
只是最近学院有数不完的小考,
所以我耽误了写格文的事情... =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

今天,
终于亲手把小鬼蟹连同生物学报告一起交上去给教授了,
心里有无限的感慨,
谢谢你,小鬼蟹,
为了我们的智慧与了解,
你牺牲了... ...
但是我保证,
你会死得最有价值... ...

大概一个半月前,
生物学教授忽然发给了大家一件极为有趣的任务,
我认为身为生物学的学生,
我们都应该要经历过这种任务... ...

教授要我们准备一份关于任何一种小型生物的报告,
并连同其标本在今天一同交上...
接到了任务,
开始时是有点不知所措,
可是又感到非常新鲜紧张刺激... ...
螳螂?
太难找到了... ...
猪笼草?
不肯定亚依淡水坝的山坡是否还有... ...
植物?
不够挑战性... ...
壁虎?
Yucks!! 恶心!!

想了又想,
想了又想,
整整想了一个礼拜,
终于被我想到了!!
爸爸的童年玩物~~~~沙蟹!! 哈哈

周末,
在炎热的沙滩上,
挖了整整十几个沙洞,
终于在一个巨大的沙洞里,
在大约整整一米深的地方,
捉到了一只只在夜间行动猎食的成年沙蟹... ...

当天,
由于好兴奋,
我把这消息发布在面子书的涂鸦墙上,
就有好多人问,
什么是沙蟹啊?
哈哈,
沙蟹,我乡下的村民以福建话称之为“沙马”... "Suah Beh"
是一种在沙滩上猎食其他小动物,
或者是以小动物死尸为食的螃蟹,
极其凶猛,
不能食用,
体长大约只能长到15~20厘米左右... ...
是一种能够在沙地上生存的螃蟹,
不会游泳,
却能够在一秒内跑上两米的距离... ...
相信有去过沙滩的人都曾经看过四处乱跑的透明小螃蟹,
那些就是沙蟹的幼儿... ...

看看照片,
能找得到它吗?


在咸咸的沙里... ...

砰出来了!!


我把小沙蟹养在家里两天,
等待星期一拿到实验室去制成标本... ...
在那两天里,
我尽量给它最潮湿温暖的沙窝,
又喂食虾头给它吃,
希望它在最后的日子里,
能好过些... ...

终于到了实验室,
我把整个装沙的桶都带去了...
看到架子上的化学物品,
心里是有些战战兢兢... ...

准备了一个玻璃小罐子,
里面的化学物叫做Formaldehyde,
是除了酒精以外另一种拿来制作标本的化学物... ...
塑料叉子包上纸巾沾上Formaldehyde,
是要拿来把小沙蟹弄昏的... ...
经过了一番搏斗,
(因为沾上化学物的纸巾竟然弄不昏小沙蟹,而且它异常
凶猛,塑料叉子也断了,所以我们都不敢赤手捉它,最后
是用试管夹把它夹起,整只泡进Formaldehyde里,它才昏
死过去)
我和实验室助理才完成了整项任务... ...phew... ...

大功告成!!!!

实验室的标本架子^^^^^

小沙蟹与其他标本合照... ...

或许有人会觉得我很残忍,
(我自己也觉得有一点是)
可是为了成为一位真正的生物学学生,
这是我必须经历的过程,
完成了任务,
就好像在生物学的路上,
到达了一个新的里程碑... ...
往好的方面想,
小沙蟹漂亮的身体,
也可以让好多观看,
让好多人受惠,
而且一直保存下去,值得!!

我把生物学报告也转贴上来,
供大家阅读... ...
也供大家给点意见... ...

最后我想说,
谢谢你...小沙蟹...谢谢你...
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Scientific Name : Ocypode ceratophthalmus

Common Name : Horned Ghost Crab or Horn-eyed Ghost Crab

Place : Gertak Sanggul

Date : 09.10.2010



Scientific Classification

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Arthropoda

Subphylum:

Crustacea

Class:

Malacostraca

Order:

Decapoda

Infraorder:

Brachyura

Family:

Ocypodidae

Genus:

Ocypode

Species:

O.ceratophthalmus


General Description about Ghost Crab

Ghost crabs, also called sand crabs, are crabs of the genus Ocypode, common shore crabs in many countries. Characteristics of the genus include one claw being larger than the other.

These crabs are called ghosts because they are translucent, and because of their ability to disappear from sight almost instantly, scuttling at speeds up to 10 miles per hour, while making sharp directional changes. These creatures have two black eyes, with very good 360° vision. The ghost crab tunnels down four feet into the ground at a 45° angle, creating 1–2 inches (25–51 mm) wide holes, which speckle the beach. You might notice the golfball-sized entrance holes of the Ghost Crab burrows in the dry sand of the upper beach, or in the sand dunes. The burrows extend down 3-4 feet. The “Ghostie” brings up clawful of sand and tosses them 6-12 inches away from the burrow opening. Later on, the Ghost Crab tromps down the strewn-about sand, and, using its claws, smooth out the surface. Another entrance style is represented by a dome of sand which covers the burrow hole. At dusk, these crabs will sprint to the ocean in order to obtain oxygen from the water which washes over their gills, and in the beginning of the summer, females will release their eggs into the ocean.

Description about Ocypode ceratophthalmus

Ocypode ceratophthalmus, the horned ghost crab or horn-eyed ghost crab, is a species of ghost crab. It lives in the Indo-Pacific region from East Africa to the Philippines and the Great Barrier Reef. They are sand-colored and somewhat diaphanous. Horned Ghost crabs can be distinguished from other related crabs by the eyestalks extending beyond the eyes into long points, which are longer in males, and shorter in females and juveniles. The crabs have a box-shaped body, 6–8 centimetres (2.4–3.1 inches) across the carapace, with a darker marking towards the rear in the shape of an H.

Horned Ghost crabs have eight walking legs which are on the backside of the crab’s body make the crab walk either right or left. One side of the four back legs helps pull the crab, and the other side stretches out and push. The crab usually does not move straight forward. Horned Ghost crabs can really run fast, as suggested by their scientific name ("Ocy" means swift and "podi" foot in Greek). They literally fly over the sand and their movement has been described as a small leaf blowing over the sand surface. In fact, they may be among the fastest land creatures, moving at 100 bodylengths per second. In comparison, the cockroach does 50 bodylengths while the cheetah does a sluggish 10 bodylengths. Horned Ghost crabs are only beaten by tiger beetles which do 171 body lengths when they are really scared. Being fast moving creatures, Horned Ghost crabs have excellent eyesight to see where they are going. Their eyes are on stalks. Horned Ghost crabs can run at speeds of up to 2.1 metres per second (6.9 ft/s). Their stalked black eyes give them an extraterrestrial appearance, and they scurry about in a rather purposeful manner. You will probably only see them at dusk or at night.

The Horned Ghost crabs are well adapted for life out of water and are among the few marine creatures that roam the beaches at low tide. They can stay for a long time away from the sea because they can absorb water from the wet sand through special hairs on the base of their legs by capillary action.
Horned Ghost crabs live in burrows that they dig high up on the shore away from the water. It is said that when tunneling out their burrow, they carry sand to about 50-100 cm away from their burrow entrance, then toss the sand as far as they can. This behavior probably explains the typical "spray" pattern of sand around their burrow.


Anatomy

A Horned Ghost crab has three main parts on its body. It is hard to see those parts if you look at the crab from above. You have to flip the crab over to see the parts because the carapace covers it. A carapace is the main part of the body where the shell is hard. Its head and the middle part of the body are called the thorax. The cephalothorax is what joins the head and the middle section together. The legs are mostly used for transportation. The front two legs of the crab are the closest to its head. They are sometimes used for walking but mostly used for eating. Those two legs are called chelipeds. The claw/pincher on the cheliped is called chela. The chelas are used to grasp or hold something. The pinching part located on the front of the crab’s body is the claws. The claws help the crabs catch their prey. Sometime crabs get so scared of humans that when they pinch the person their claw breaks off. Soon after a claw breaks off, a new one will grow on. Crabs have a soft inner layer and a hard outer layer. Animals with this type of body are also known as crustaceans. Crustaceans are also known as decapods. Decapods are 10-footed animals. Other decapods are lobsters and shrimp.

Life Cycle

Females with egg masses need to frequently enter the water to keep the eggs wet. Although Ghost Crabs cannot swim, the females may turn upside down in the water to ventilate the egg mass which is carried under her tail. The babies begin life in the water, and then become amphibious temporally.

When the female crab has baby crabs, they come out in eggs. When the female crab lays her eggs, she puts them in water. Then she moves fast above the eggs, so that they will hatch. When the baby crabs hatch, they are called larvae. They do not look at all like the adult crabs. They have to go through stages of their life before they look like a crab. During the first stage, the crab is known as a zoea. The zoea is very tiny and looks a lot like a shrimp. When the crab is a zoea, it is usually about 1 millimeter (1/ 25 inches) long. The zoea usually feeds only on the larvae of oysters and starfish. The zoea starts to shed the outer layer of its shell because it is getting big. This is called molting.

When the crab enters its second stage of growing it is called megalops. This means that it has large eyes. The megalops also gets its claws and the appendages of an adult crab. This shows that the crab is almost done growing.

During the final stage, the crabs are full grown. The megalops on the crab molts. Then a young crab has all of the body parts that an adult crab has. The hard part that gets made during this process is called a chitin. A chitin is the hard part of the crab also known as a carapace. When the crab grows, the chitin grows with it. The chitin stays with the crab for its whole life.


Role in the Food Chain

Horned Ghost crabs are scavengers, foraging at night for any dead creatures left behind on the shore at low tide. They may also hunt small animals and clams and snails near the water's edge. At night, they have been seen foraging on the wet intertidal near the mid-water mark. Horned Ghost Crabs scavenge the beach, looking for tasty things to eat. Once a year, when baby sea turtles are hatching out, they enjoy special feasts. They drag the three-inch-long hatchlings down into their underground burrows, and devour them.

Besides eating baby sea turtles, the Horned Ghost Crab likes beach fleas, coquina clams, mole crabs, lizards, and carrion. It feeds at night. Ghost crabs deal with the dead in their habitat.

Horned Ghost crabs are in turn eaten by many animals higher up in the food chain. On some of the Caribbean Islands, Ghost Crabs are a human food source. Like other creatures of the intertidal zone, Ghost crabs are affected by human activities such as reclamation and pollution. Trampling by careless visitors also has an impact on local populations.

第六十一章
献给:
小沙蟹
陪我捉蟹劳苦功高的爸爸
生物学教授
实验室助理

2 条评论:

  1. 我就是不想解剖生物,最后逃离了理科而转到文科,最后的最后变成了从商的生意人,呵呵!

    回复删除
  2. 哈哈,只要是成功,就OK了啊!! haha

    回复删除

我时常胡言乱语,对于你悉心的阅读,我打从心里谢谢你,祝福你^_^

我时常胡言乱语,对于你悉心的阅读,我打从心里谢谢你,祝福你^_^

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