Pom-pom crabs steal anemone

Lybia species are known as “boxer” or “pom-pom”crabs for holding sea anemones in their claws. Researchers discovered that removing one anemone from a Lybia leptochelis crab induces a “splitting” behavior, the sea anemones were split into two clones which subsequently regenerated into two intact sea anemones. A crab with no anemones will steal from another crab, both splitting their lone anemone into two. Credit: Boxer crabs induce asexual reproduction of their associated sea anemones by splitting and intra