Crabs that Employ Housemaids.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 7 August 1914, Page 2

Crabs that Employ Housemaids.

AND CROCODILES WITH DEN-

TISPS

It has been said that crabs are as artful as "a. barrowload of monkeys," and no one who has read Professor Edward Step's remark-, able book, "Messmates : ..-A^Boo'L oi Strange Companionships in Nature," will deny that there is considerable truth in the remark. Amazing indeed are some of the revelations which the Professor makes regarding crabs. He relates, for instance, how the common hermit crab actually keeps a housemaid to clean out his house. When he first starts life this particular species of crab hunts for somi? large shellfish's shell in which ha, can live at ease, rent free. He usually chooses a large whell* shell, and introduces a large seas worm, belonging to what is knowi* as the "nereis" family, and which grows to a length of six or eight inches, to keep the interior of the shell clean. The crab feeds heartily on sea creatures that wander carelessly into the shell, and throws the indigestible parts of them about the floor. The nereis worm promptly consumes these remains, and keeps the shell as clean as a new Pin, The artlessness of this crab, too, is strikingly illustrated by the ingenious manner in which he protects himself against the large fish which look upon him as an excellent article of food. Sometimes he induces a sponge to grow on his shell, Sponges in a living condition give out a strong odour, which is distinctly unpleasant to fish, and even a dogfish will not attack a crab protected in this manner. Sometimes the crab will make a home in the middle of a sponge, or induce a eea anemone to grow on the top of the whelk shell of which he is a tenant. The anemone, like the sponge, is a distasteful mouthful for large fish, and so the crab escapes that danger. The Professor also points out that the partnership between the crocodile and the bird, frequently treated as a anyth in modern times, can often be seen. The particular bird which likes the society of the crocodile is the Egyptian plover, which feeds on the insects that infest the crocodile The reptile is dull of sight and hard of hearing, and the alert little bird often gives him warning of the approach of danger or Ihe proximity of food. The wonderful intelligence of ants has often h eeu described, but it is not generally known that the common black ant keeps large colonies 01 green fly, known scientifically as aphides." The ants protect the flies from beetles and other enemies who would devour them, and the flies in return furnish the ants with H;ney, of which they are' intensely ■ lone. The ants extract the sweet fluid from the body of tho flies by st-roKir.gjthem v , ith lheir fulteunae _ The premisor^^rTwiTat Chilti, Ataly, collapsed, burying £ c JSO 000 lttSPeCie- -~ -ISL-