They clear the sea and beach
of dead matter which would poison the air and water.
For many years nobody knew how Crabs grew up. It was thought that a baby
Crab was like its mother, just as a baby spider is a tiny picture of its
parent. But no, the young Crab is as much _like_ a Crab as a caterpillar
is like a butterfly.
Let us begin at the beginning--the egg. Mother Crab carries her eggs
with her, under her tail, which itself is always kept tucked up under
her body. Out of each egg there comes the queerest little creature! It
is just large enough to be seen as it wriggles in the water. Then its
skin splits, and there appears a quaint thing with long feathery legs, a
big head, a spike on the back of its head, and another spike like a
nose.
Who would suspect this strange atom would turn into a Crab! Well, nobody
did. It was called a _zoea_; but you can call it a Crab caterpillar or
larva. The maggot is the larva of the fly, and the zoea is the larva of
the Crab. With crowds of its brothers and sisters, the zoea kicks about
on the surface of the sea. Fishes, and even great whales, swallow these
tiny things by the million.
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