Crabs

Dear Lilliputian ,

When you are at the beach this summer . . . I thought I would tell you about one of the things you might find . I bet you knew that this is a Crab shell . It was not alive . . . I found it on the beach all dried up . Were you able to guess that this was a female Crab ? I will tell you how you can tell that the one above was a female Crab . If you flip the Crab over and look at its stomach you will see the apron . I bet you didn't know that Crabs wear aprons .

Do you see that reddish shape on the Crab drawing above ? That is her apron and when the Crab is female they call her Sook . 

The male Crab has a very skinny apron and he is called Jimmy .

When Sook has eggs she holds them against her stomach underneath her apron till they are ready to hatch and then she lets them go . If you look at the photo below you will see Sook holding her orange eggs with her apron .

So this Summer if you see a dried up Crab on the beach turn it over and see if you can tell if it was a girl or a boy . 

 There is a chapter book that is perfect for young girls who like to read chapter books during the Summer . I read it aloud to my children when they were small . It is called Misty of Chicoteague by Marguerite Henry . It is about some children who spend their Summer saving up enough money to buy a wild pony on Pony Penning Day . The ponies come from a  the wild herd of ponies that live on an Island just off the coast of Virginia . 

Until next time ,

Wildbee