Despite their name , horseshoe crab louse are not , in fact , crabs or even members of the crustacean folk . They ’re in reality related to spiders as a member of the major subsection of arthropods , Chelicerata . This group include the arachnids and scorpions , both of whom have to shed their exoskeleton as they develop , and so too do horseshoe crabs . Avideohas now captured the moment a baby horseshoe crab sheds its   old shield , revealing a vernal new layer beneath .

Arthropods are far-famed for their exoskeleton , which are made of the hardy long - chain polymer chitin . The exoskeletons and shells they grow supply protection from predators , but their rigidity means they also inevitably become too modest . As they maturate , a indulgent external layer will develop beneath their hardened shell , but finally the time will come up for them to wriggle out of the sure-enough one to allow a new chitinous carapace to indurate . The soft shell beneath is pleated and flatten to jibe under the former , smaller shell , but once it ’s reveal it slowly extend out and hardens . Beach - goers often find the old put away shells of these creatures   washed up on the beach , which can have quite aghostly show .

Horseshoe pediculosis pubis will dump their shell around18 timesbefore reaching reproductive maturity at around 10 age of long time , with six of these happening in the first year of life when they grow rapidly . The hold up fossils will grow to a breadth of around 30 centimetre ( 1 foot ) if they survive to adulthood , though excessive harvesting for theirblue bloodis threatening universe numbers .

In the wilderness , the shedding of their case takes several hour as the horseshoe Cancer make gentle pulsing movement to gradually slue out of their shells . The video was posted by Bailey Steinworth , a nautical life scientist from the University of Florida , and has been sped up so that the entire process can be observed in just 16 seconds . The shoe Cancer the Crab in inquiry is just 1   or 2   old age of historic period and about 6.3 cm ( 2.5 inches ) in duration .

While it ’s heavy to see things happening in the scientific world outside of epidemiology at the moment , for one Twitter drug user the video still brought up thought of life in quarantine .

We ’d recommend keeping yourlockdownloaves free of arthropods .