Allison Lloyd III, aged 10 of Richmond, Va., for his question:
What is a soft shelled crab?
Crabs belong to the huge tribe of animals called Arthropods ‑ the jointed ones. Their special family is named Crustacea ‑ the crusted ones. They are first cousins to the lobsters and the shrimps, who are also jointed, crusty ones. All crabs have jointed legs. Most, but not all, of them shelter their heads and bodies under a hard oval shell. Inside the crusty shell is a soft body with no bones at all.
The hard one‑piece shell serves as a house and cost of armor. However, it does not grow. And the crab inside does grow. The hermit crab copes with this problem in his own way. He refuses to grow a crust that might become shabby or too tight for him. He borrows an empty shell from a departed shellfish. When he gets tired of it, he simply scouts around for a new one.
While changing houses, the hermit crab walks around with his soft, tapering body unprotected. He will try on several different shells for size and comfort. When he settles on one, he nestles inside it with his head and claws peeping out. He will take it with him until times comes to change homes again. But he is never a soft shell crab.
There are the crabs that grow their own housecoats. All shelled crabs molt and change coats from time to time. But the champion changer is the blue crab of the Atlantic shores. He is a very showy fellow. In winter he makes off for the warmer ocean depths. But in summer you may spot him off the piers and along the rocky shoreline.
His crusty body is greenish brown. This color hides him among the rocks and mud. But he gives himself away with bright blue legs. He gets his name from those blue stockings.
The blue crab hatches from a small, orange colored egg. The little fellow grows so fast that he must shed his old crust every week. For a day or two his soft body is without a hard crust to protect it. Even as a baby, he tries to hide from his enemies until his new shell hardens.
The blue crab keeps on molting all through his life. He sheds his crust several times a year, even after he has finished growing. When he wriggles out of his old crust he is covered with a paper thin skin. He must wait for a few days for this to thicken into a hard crust. During those days he is a soft shell crab.
This blue crab is delicious to eat at any time. But he is at his best during his soft shell days. For then we do not have to scoop him out of his crusty shell. His new coat is so thin that we can eat him, skin and all. Mr. Crab seems to know about this. For he is hardest to find while he is between coats. For several days he will hide in the rocks or burrow in the sand and mud. And who can blame him?