The Island of the Crabs

Dneprov, Anatoly. "The Island of the Crabs." 1959. In International Science Fiction No. 2 (June 1968).[1] Rpt. Other Worlds, Other Seas. Darko Suvin, editor. New York: Berkley Books, 1972.

See for mechanical crabs. John J. Pierce quotes

These crabs can, in a short time, eat up all the metal the enemy has. All his tanks, cannon, airplanes. All his machine tools, devices, equipment. All the metal on his territory. In a month there wouldn’t be a scrap of metal left on Earth. It would all go to the reproduction of these crabs. (p. 210) <\blockquote>

Cf. and strongly contrast the self-replicating von Neumann' machines in 2010: Odyssey Two

RDE, with thanks to JJP, 5July20