One of the four new species of freshwater crab is pictured.
Picture by Hendrik Freitag
Four new species of freshwater crab, bright purple in colour, have been discovered in the Philippines.
Found only in small, lowland-forest ecosystems in the Palawan island group, most have purple shells, with claws and legs tipped red. The tiny crustaceans burrow under boulders and roots in streams, feeding on dead plants, fruits, carrion and small animals in the water at night, said Hendrik Freitag of Germany’s Senckenberg Museum of Zoology.
