Crabs live in salt water, fresh water, and on land. They eat small bits of plant and animal material. All crabs reproduce through mating, where the male carries the female on his back for weeks after mating to fertilize her eggs. The female stores the male's sperm and can fertilize multiple batches of eggs with the stored sperm.

1. THE CRABS

2. • Crabs live all over the world.
• Some kinds, or species, live
in salt water, others live in
fresh water.
• Some even spend all their
time on dry land.

3. SALT WATER CRABS

4. FRESH WATER CRABS

6. 

9. JOKING APART…
Crabs eat small bits of
plant and animal material
that they find in the
water and along the
shoreline.

11.  All species of crabs reproduce
by laying eggs, but the
females and males still need
to mate to fertilize the eggs.
 During mating, the male crab
carries the female on his back
for up to two weeks, after
which the female stores the
male's sperm in sacs on her
abdomen.

12.  Female crabs can only mate after
after they molt, or shed their
shell. When a female is about to
molt, she releases pheromones
that attract male crabs who then
then fight over the female.
 When the female chooses a
male, she then attaches herself
to the male and rides on his back
back until she finally molts.
 After the molting, she then
accepts the sperm from the
male, but she continues to ride
on his back until her new shell
has fully hardened.

13.  Once the female detaches
herself from the male, she
then migrates to a different
area and eventually allows the
sperm to flow over her eggs
to fertilize them.
 Most species of crabs can
carry as many as 100,000 to
200,000 eggs at one time, but
many of these won't hatch
and only a small percentage
ever grow to adulthood.

14.  The eggs are then stored on
a sponge-like structure on
the female's abdomen for a
period of several weeks
until the crab larvae finally
hatch.
 Many species of crab only
mate once, but after
fertilizing the initial set of
eggs, the female continues to
store enough sperm on her
abdomen to fertilize two or
three more sets of eggs.