Decorator crab | 水產百科網

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Types of crab that camouflage themselves with materials e.g. sponges, plants

Decorator crabs are crabs of several different species, belonging to the superfamily Majoidea (not all of which are decorators), that use materials from their environment to hide from, or ward off, predators. They decorate themselves by sticking mostly sedentary animals and plants to their bodies as camouflage, or if the attached organisms are noxious, to ward off predators through aposematism.[1]

In 1889, William Bateson observed in detail the way that decorator crabs fix materials on their backs. He noted that "the whole proceeding is most human and purposeful", and that if a Stenorhynchus crab is cleaned, it will "immediately begin to clothe itself again with the same care and precision as before".[2]