In the past two weeks I found two strange creatures in my apartment. One I carried in from the grocery store, although it traveled all the way from New Zealand. And the other is a native of Singapore that let itself in during the night. Take a look at these pictures.
This past weekend I made fresh pasta and a creamy tomato mussel sauce to go with it. I found two small creatures in the sauce later which resemble crabs. Before I discuss further, take a look at pictures of one of them.
This creature came from somewhere within the two dozen live New Zealand green-lipped mussels I bought for the sauce. It shares some qualities of a crab: eight legs, two claws in front. But one quality is not like any crab I have ever seen. Its body is distinctly divided into two segments. And the back segment shell is composed of bands that allow it to flex and curl, much like a honeybee or wasp.
I’ve done a little Googling to get to the bottom of this. But the only information I can find about crabs in mussels speaks of the parasitic Pea Crab. You can find pictures of these on-line. Pea Crabs only have one segment like normal crabs so I think this is something else. But what the hell is it?
The second picture is no mystery. It’s a bit funnier and not quite as gross (unless you are afraid of geckos). The tropics are teeming with lizards. Since America is not, I have always found them fascinating. And one thing I learned when backpacking through southeast Asia is that geckos in your bedroom meant that mosquitos would not be. I’ll take geckos any day over mosquitos.
So, here’s one of the little guys that stole into my apartment in the middle of the night. I left a sip of cider in an empty bottle the night before. When this guy woke up from his hangover, I had the camera on him.
🙂