Off topic: Stunning Crab Photos from Arthur Anker!

Today, a little diversion from echinoderm as we feature, once again, the stunning invertebrate zoology photography of Arthur Anker featuring some of his favorite animals!

A "strawberry crab" (Pelia mutica) from the Honduras

wow! A festive decorator spider crab called Cyclax suborbicularis (Majidae) from Moorea, French Polynesia

A "christmas lights crab (Paractaea rufopunctata)

The spectacular deep-water crab Rochinia crassa

An awesome looking leucosiid crab, Heteronucia venusta from Guam

A stunning Chilean hermit crab (Pagurus edwardsi) infested by a parasitic barnacle (=a rhizocephalan called Peltogasterella gracilis)

A striking striped crab, Liopetrolisthes mitra

An interesting grapsid crab, from French Polynesia

A gorgeous polka dot xanthid crab, Cycloxanthops vittatus from Panama

Stunning red xanthid crab, Liomera rubra from Guam

Fire crab! (Hirsutodynomene sp.)

More polka dots! (Trapezia tigrina)

A flat-rock elbow crab, Cryptopodia fornicata

and wow..there's more which I will add in another post some day!

Off-topic: A Panoply of Polychaetes! Photos by Arthur Anker

Just returned from Paris and am snowed under by jet lag and catchup, so here are some stunning images of various polychate worms!  by my colleague  Arthur Anker formerly at the Universidade Federal do Ceara, Labomar but now at the National University of Singapore.

Arthur's photography stuns me whenever I see it and if I can share it with the public than I do! Enjoy!

and if you enjoy polychaetes go check out my link page of "bobbit worm" videos! here.

My post on the worm-shrimp 1-2 punch vs. crown of thorns starfish here.

Gorekia! the worm that lives INSIDE a sea urchin! here.

The Leather star (Dermasterias) scale worm love? story! here.

A gorgeous Trypanosyllis sp, a syllid worm from Moorea, French Polynesia.

A stunning Eupolymnia tube worm from the Caribbean

Head on with Diopatra sp. (Onuphidae) from the mudflats of Singapore

and more Diopatra love!

Hermodice cf. canunculata-a fire worm from Sao Tome

Eunice sp from the Caribbean coast of Panama

Nereis cf. riisei, rolled up into a spiral, fr. Panama

Fireworm (Chloeia sp) from Panama Canal

Branchiomma sp. a sabellid worm from Sao Tome, Brazil

Lepidonotus sp. from the Caribbean

 Pontogenia from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia 

A festively colored scale worm, Lepidasthenia sp. from Cozumel Island, Mexico

A neat pic of a sand-tube worm, Pectinaria IN a sand-grain tube! from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Another Pectinaria species, from Florida showing the worm and its sand-grain tube

Finally, a maldanid polychaete worm from Australia

Ophiuroids (brittle stars) & other photography by Dr. Arthur Anker!

This week is busy and so I leave you with some STUNNING photography by one of my colleagues.. Dr. Arthur Anker!  He studies mostly shrimps and other crustaceans but does incredible things with a camera! If you're looking to hire a biologist who knows his decapods he gets my vote!

Artour's full photostream can be found here on Flickr!   Enjoy!

This looks like the top side of Ophiarachna

Here's the mouth and underside..

Damn... just stunning. An electric blue Ophiothrix from Australia (Great Barrier Reef)

Here's an Ophiothrix from Panama

Ophionereis? I think.. from Panama

I believe this is Ophioderma (giraffe patterned) from St. Martin

Some baby brittle stars from Moorea!

Some Non-echinoderms...

A male sea spider...

An amazing worm (Trypanosyllis sp. (Syllidae) from Moorea, French Polynesia. (ID by Leslie Harris)

A polychaete worm (Nereis cf. riisei) rolled up into a spiral

One of the most beautiful (and IMHO best named) crabs in the world-Lophozozymus incisus

A sexy yellow and purple hermit crab Pylopaguropsis lemaitrei from Moorea