1 800 913-7906
Accurate drawings of various species of crabs and other crustaceans. All illustrations are hand drawn and expertly rendered. In the gallery is the American Lobster, Harlequin Shrimp, Louisiana Crawfish, Maroon Hermit Crab, Purple Shore Crab and Sally Lightfoot Crab. All images are available in both line art and full color. High quality prints made on acid-free archival paper are available of all drawings in the gallery. If you do not see the crustacean you're looking for please contact the artist to make a suggestion. Custom illustrations of specific animals can be ordered as well. For more information and pricing please call 1 (800) 913-7906 or send an email to the artist.
The wildlife drawings are also available for stock art illustration.
Crustaceans - specifically crabs - aren't perhaps the first choice of subject matter for many of the wildlife illustrators out there. But after seeing images of the Sally Lightfoot Crab, I was inspired by the amazing coloration of the animal and I knew I had to draw it. Since then, I've added a few more crustaceans, including the toy-like Harlequin Shrimp, which is a favorite of mine (they have them in a tank at the California Science Museum and it's always fun to see them. I often see the purple shore crabs on the coastline of my adopted state of California, and at some point I hope to add more native crabs, and other crustaceans to the gallery here. If you have a specific request for a species of crab, shrimp or other crustacean that isn't here, please feel free to drop me an email. The Atlantic Horseshoe Crab isn't technically a crab (it's more closely related to scorpions, spiders and ticks) but I've included it here anyway as it is an ocean animal similar to crustaceans, at least in appearance.
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods. The term is generally treated as a subphylum. This group includes crabs, shrimp, lobsters, crayfish, krill and barnacles. Roughly some 50,000 species of crustacean have been indentified, and there are many more on earth yet to be discovered. Some species are almost microscopic at less than a few millimeters, while others like the Japanese Spider Crab has a leg span of an incredible twelve feet (3.8 meters) and weighs over forty pounds (20 kg.) They are unlike other arthropods as they have two-parted appendages and there are differences in the larvae stage. Most crustaceans live in the worlds oceans and near marine coastlines, but there are also many who inhabit freshwater as well as terrestrial or semi-aquatic species. There are even some arboreal (tree-dwelling) species of crab in the tropical jungles. The anatomy of the crustacean is composed of body segments; the head, the thorax and the abdomen. The head and thorax of some species is sometimes fused together to form what's called a "cephalothorax." This may be covered by a single large carapace. Like most arthropods, the crustacean body is protected by a hard shell or exoskeleton. As with the head and thorax, other parts of the exoskeleton may be fused together. Crustaceans are very ancient, and with the fossil records most major groups of them can be traced back to the Cambrian period, which is first geological period of the Paleozoic are, usually agreed on as being about 542 to 251 million years ago
