In Hawai‘i we have a funny name for one of our largest crabs – it’s called a Seven-Eleven crab. Unrelated to the eponymus convenience store, the name comes instead from the number of spots – and their location – on the crab’s carapace (shell). If you look at the crab from the top-front (as in the photo above) it appears to have 7 spots. But if you look straight down on it you will see 4 additional spots for a total of 11.
It also has other less-imaginitive names. Its scientific name is Carpilius maculatus, meaning spotted. In other parts of the Pacific it is called a Red-Spotted Crab.
Its Hawaiian name is ‘alakuma, and in old Hawai‘i a story was told that explained the spots. A hungry god attempted to grab an ‘alakuma for his meal, but the crab pinched him and drew blood before scurrying away. The god tried again and the crab fought back pinching him some more. Finally, on the third attempt the god was successful in catching his dinner. Today the crab’s descendants sport large blood-red spots from the god’s attempts at capturing it.
Every now and then an unusual individual such as the one above shows up with many more than 11 spots. We don’t know how many spots it had across the back, but if it had the typical 4 spots it would have a total of 22 spots instead of 11. Applying the legend and doing the math, this crab’s ancestor must have put up twice as hard a fight as the original Seven-Eleven crab (or maybe even got away)!
Written by Pauline Fiene. Photos as credited.