Crab Monsters (scientific name Crustacea Monstrum) are vicious blue land crabs from the tropical beaches and seasonal deserts of Sector Prime temperate and hot planets. The size of hovertaxis, with a length and height of three meters each, they are thickly armored and have two large claws. Above their articulated mandibles, two tiny red eyes on stalks peer disturbingly in different directions. Similar to certain varieties of chameleon, each of their two bubble-like eyes see in a 180 degree arc. Hence, when the creatures are active, they are nearly impossible to surprise.
Both predators and scavengers, Crab Monsters are as likely to be found ingesting the unwholesome remains of a rotting carcass as stalking another living creature. While scavenging, a Crab Monster can be fairly docile, unless you get too close. Its elongated pincers are surprisingly agile and razor sharp. When a Crab Monster is hunting, no living thing within fifty meters is safe. In melee, it can quickly rotate its shell body 360 degrees while keeping its legs in place. Given its size and the sheer toughness of its chitin armor, attributes like these certainly rate the crab monster as one of the most dangerous, deadly and, well, monstrous creatures known.
Crab monsters live solitary lives except during the mating season, when they reproduce in ways very similar to their smaller aquatic cousins with the exception that maturing eggs are buried. An infant crab monster is very delicate and "cute" but beware. It will likely pinch your finger or toe...off. They can live for over 125 years.
