Spying on Horseshoe Crabs

Painting by Heinrich Harder

Horseshoe crabs perform a mass mating ritual at high tide on a full or new moon in the summertime. Thousands flock to bays all along the Delaware coast to fertilise and lay their eggs.

It’s an enormous orgy. Horseshoe crabs are piled on top of and crammed in next to one another, tails wagging and little legs occasionally exposed.