Ear: Crab

Recently, Ron Neva posted on Facebook a photo of a little crab (pictured) he found in a plant he bought at Home Depot. It was only 1.75 inches long.

“My little crab … made its way to the Salem Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife invasive species folks,” Neva posted in an update. “They just called and said they can’t identify it as local,” but “after being reviewed by around 20 crab experts with microscopes, they believe it to be a Gulf Coast Columbus crab. It’s named after Columbus, as it likes to hitch rides and travel.”

The Columbus crab, aka Planes minutus Linnaeus, “is a species of grapsid crab that is known to be symbiotically associated with various species that include, but are not limited to, sea turtles. This species is known to occur in tropical and subtropical oceans.” They can turn up in odd places, as well. One was even found on a loggerhead sea turtle off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

How an oceangoing crab ended up on dry land, in a plant, in a store in Warrenton, is even more puzzling, but the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is still working on it.