The horseshoe or king crab is not a true crab but is a large sea animal more closely related to spiders and scorpions. Because it looks like a crab and lives in salt water, most people think of it as one of the crab species, failing to notice that it doesn’t have the visible claws of true crabs.
Its name comes from the fact that from the top its shell looks like a horse’s hoof, and from the bottom it looks like a horseshoe. Every year its shell is discarded and a new one grows in its place. A large shell can be more than a foot across. The whole body is covered by this shell, with its two pairs of eyes and six pairs of legs up front and other parts narrowing down to a sharp spine about six inches long. This spine is a weapon of defense and also a help in moving along the ocean bottom and in turning right-side up when a wave turns the crab upside down.
The back pair of legs push the “crab” along the sand or mud, and there are stiff flaps at the back to keep the crab from sinking into the sand. It moves rather quickly along the bottom in search of food, scooping with its legs and pushing with its long spine.
Its food includes sea snails, worms, mussels, oysters and clams. It is understandable that oyster and clam fishermen kill these crabs whenever they can, but there are always millions more to replace them.
Horseshoe crabs leave their winter homes in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in early summer, migrating north to islands off the Atlantic coast of North America. They crawl up on the beaches to the high tide mark to scoop shallow, basin-like holes in the sand or mud. They lay from two to three hundred eggs in these holes, covering them over before returning to the sea. In a little over a month’s time these eggs hatch out in great quantities, that is, any eggs that are not eaten. Hordes of birds have an instinct given by the Creator to know each year just when the migrating crabs have laid their eggs and are on hand to enjoy a big feast.
What a contrast was the response of King David who wrote our opening verse when he thought about the wonders of God’s creation, compared to those referred to in Romans 1:2121Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Romans 1:21): “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” How wonderful it is to know the love of God and thank Him for His Son, the Saviour of sinners. Are you a thankful or unthankful one?
JUNE 6, 1999
ML-05/06/1999