C. brevimanus

2018 Coenobita brevimanus mating

May 14, 2018

Male – Maybe Baby Daddy, Female – unnamed, were both sitting on the choya log a few inches apart. Both were just sitting calmly. Around 9:30 AM MBD approached her, rolled her over and mating began with little fuss. About 2 minutes in you will see him place his sex tube inside her shell. Around 2:22 you can see the sex tubes touching her gonopores.

At the 5 minute mark he begins to slowly retract back into his shell. Around 6:35 his sex tubes are pulled back into his shell. At 14 minutes you will see him gently rocking her. The entire encounter took 20 minutes. He likely will guard her now but I’m not sure how long that will go on. The other female he pursued last year (Ditto) is the other large crab in the video. I never saw her with eggs last year so I don’t believe she was ever receptive to him. He pursued her a bit this spring as well.