2-979-065 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Robber Crab (Birgus latro), 1857. Charles Darwin: 'The young are hatched and live for some time on the coast. At this period of existence we cannot suppose that cocoa- nuts form any part of their diet; most probably soft saccharine grasses, tender fruits, and animal matters constitute their food, until they attain to a certain degree of size and strength...It has been stated by some authors that the Birgus latro crawls up the cocoa-nut trees, for the purpose of stealing the nuts. I very much doubt the possibility of this; but with Pandanus (to which Mr. Cuming refers as being ascended by this crab) the task would be very much easier. I understand from Mr. Liesk that on these islands [in Malaya] the Birgus lives only on the nuts which fall to the ground'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.