Discoplax gracilipes

Discoplax gracilipes is a species of cave-dwelling, terrestrial crab found in the Philippines and far southern Japan. The crabs have extremely long, stalk-like walking legs and are generally coloured purple. They inhabit warm, shallow cave pools which they share with several other crab species, as well as a variety of other animals. The crabs are foragers active both day and night, emerging to search for food and to release eggs into the sea. They were first reported by scientists in Panglao in the Philippines in the late 20th century, but the species was not given a formal scientific description until 2000. In the subsequent decades, the crabs were found on other nearby islands in the Philippines, and in 2023, a single crab was discovered living in a cave on a Japanese island near Taiwan, extending its known range by 1,400 kilometres (870 mi). A member of the family Gecarcinidae, D. gracilipes is believed to be most closely related to D. longipes. The locals in Panglao who catch them call them Alikuai.