Molts

You should be seeing the shed exoskeleton’s of Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs on our beaches now. Note how they are hollow right down to the smallest joint.

As arthropods, Horseshoes must molt to grow larger: they do it about half a dozen times during their first year and then some 18 more times after that before reaching sexual maturity, at around 9 (males) – 12 (females) years of age. July and August are the big molting months.

The pewter pin in the picture showed up in the mail after I reported a tagged Horseshoe at Plum Beach in May.