WETlands
a publication of Sungei Buloh Nature Park
Vol 6 No 1
Apr 99

Butterflies and their food plants

Traditional
Prawn Harvesting

Birdsketching Workshop

Nature Talks
at Sungei Buloh

Insectopia:
Land before time about the insects at Sungei Buloh

Tree
Climbing Crabs
in Singapore Mangroves

Rhinoceros
Beetle

Atlas Moth

Sungei Buloh
5th Anniversary Celebrations

Volunteer Annual General Meeting

Otters in Sight and a Masked Finfoot sighting		  
Tree Climbing Crabs
in Singapore Mangroves
by N. Sivasothi
and Kelvin Lim

Most of our mangrove forest is found along the North Coast.

Many interesting plants and animals found here are unique to this habitat.

Crabs are numerous here...

Some, like this Ilyogynis
are very small
Most Crabs dwell on the ground or in burrows.But there is a special group of crabs that are found on trees!

Selatium may be difficult to see in the day, but at night, hundreds may be seen on tree trunks, grazing algae up to heights of 4m.


Metopographus is seen in smaller numbers, usually closer to the ground.

Selatium brockii lives on trees like Phytotelmic
Metopograpsus climbs under certain conditions...
And so does Episesarma
 There are 3 species of Episesarma, distinguished by the cheliped colour..

Episesarma
versicolour

Episesarma
chengtongensis

Episesarma
singaporensis
In the day Episesarmas can be seen climbing during high tide, but they remain just above the water level. At night, however, they climb to heights of about 6m or more, and can be seen grazing on algae as well as eating leaves.
If you start walking around the mangrove at dusk, you will gradually see more and more crabs on tree trunks at increasingly greater heights.


But try not to get stranded!
   
© Sungei Buloh Nature Park