A Sewing Shrimp?

Man like David Attenborough is quite rightly very impressed by the Weaver Bird and the nest they make.

The weaver bird begins nesting with a half-hitch knot and a hoop to form the entrance. Sure, this is neat - but crustaceans are similarly capable of nesting and creating what humans might call a ‘home’.

Alpheus pachychirius is a shrimp so forgotten by ‘higher-mammal’ bias it hasn’t even got a WORMS* photo, not to mention a wikipedia. Yet this fantastic creature is noted by crustacean expert Waldo Schmitt as being a truly adept home-maker.

This creature will find a fold in a mat of fine algae, and lie down on its back in the furrow. Then, using delicate clawed legs it draws the edges of the dip around itself, loosely enclosing itself.

Now swaddled - it uses its legs like a crochet hook, punching through the algae and drawing a single algal thread through one side and into the other, then back again.

Not only this, but this clever shrimp tacks along the whole edge first rather than simply starting at one end. This speedy approach means it can create a four inch tube in ten minutes.

Eat that one birds.
*World Register of Marine Species

P.C: W.Schmitt after Cowles