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[peridot]

This has happened in two forts now:

I dig down seeking magma (of course). No dice until I hit the magma sea, so I dig around until I find a suitable pumping-out site (flat-topped region of warm stone). I dig out the warm stone, dig a hole through into the sea, and slap a green glass grate over it. I go on to build a couple of pumps, load up some minecarts with magma, and get magma glass furnaces, smelters, and forges going. Hooray! All is good, and I leave the minecarts at the bottom of my long exploratory stair.

Months or years later I get: Urist McInefficient cancels Haul stone: interrupted by magma crab. And indeed, there's a magma crab crawling around my lower tunnels. Now, I breached the caverns but sealed them off, and I breached the magma sea in exactly one spot, downward, with a green glass grate covering it. That grate is intact. So where did the crab come from? As far as I can tell it spawned already inside my fortress. Putting a locked hatch ten levels up or so keeps magma crabs from visiting my dwarves, so it seems that they spawn near the magma sea but not actually in it. Does this make sense? Is this supposed to happen? Shouldn't they spawn on map edges like other wildlife?

I read something about creatures spawning near but not in magma tubes/volcanoes, but I don't have any of those anywhere nearby (none visible in the revealed part of the magma sea, in particular).

I realize that the dwarfly solution is to simply let the crabs accumulate down there - will they disappear again? - to be used as a pit to throw goblins into. Come to think of it, will a team of crabs trapped in my locked magma supply room keep other magma creatures from spawning?

[Thisfox]

You could try stabling a kitten down there. I find they're good for a lot of the magmavermin, but I don't know if crabs are in that category.

[bluephoenix]

Creatues do not spawn on random locations in your fortress, they either get born, come in from the map edges, or from the magma flow tiles that are at the bottom of the magma sea.

Maybe you left a hole diagonally somewhere?
I am not sure if the bug is fixed or not but creatues used to be able to path through grates, bars and fortifications in magma and water.

[utunnels]

That happened to me once.
At first I thought it was the holes on the floors.

 I just hope more cave spiders can spawn inside my fort so I can collect webs without going into the caverns.

[peridot]

I was very careful about openings to the magma sea: there's only one, a vertical hole through the floor. There is a grate over it, and the grate isn't submerged. (Magma below but not above.) So I don't think critters can pass through. But then I didn't expect creatures to spawn either; magma crabs are not vermin but full-sized creatures.

[bluephoenix]

I just hope more cave spiders can spawn inside my fort so I can collect webs without going into the caverns.

Yes hopefully the vermin, which can spawn will provide safe webs.

I was very careful about openings to the magma sea: there's only one, a vertical hole through the floor. There is a grate over it, and the grate isn't submerged. (Magma below but not above.) So I don't think critters can pass through. But then I didn't expect creatures to spawn either; magma crabs are not vermin but full-sized creatures.

Magma does not spawn animals so I really have no idea, take another look if there is no hole anywhere. Also the crabs didn't get into your fort before you put the grate over the hole right?