Neodorippe callida
The last two pairs of walking legs are smaller than the other two pairs and are modified to grasp a leaf.
Vernacular name: Leaf porter.
During the ebbing tide observe the leaves in the streams draining mangrove (top right) and note that some move against the tidal flow. Carefully turn the leaf over and find hanging to the underside the leaf porter crab, Neodorippe callida. The leaf masks the crab from fish swimming below in deeper water. In the day, while the crab is hiding on the bottom, the leaf conceals it from swimming predators above.
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Crustacea
Class Malacostraca
Order Decapoda Latreille, 1803
Infraorder Brachyura Linnaeus, 1758
Superfamily Dorippoidea MacLeay, 1838
Family Dorippidae MacLeay, 1838
Neodorippe callida (Fabricius, 1798)
Eastern Indian Ocean, Southeast and East Asia.
Mangroves and estuarine areas.