Charybdis hellerii
| Charybdis hellerii | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Family: | Portunidae |
| Genus: | Charybdis |
| Species: | C. hellerii |
| Binomial name | |
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Charybdis hellerii (A. Milne-Edwards, 1867) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Charybdis hellerii, the Indo-Pacific swimming crab or spiny hands is a species of crab from the swimming crab family, the Portunidae. Its native range covers the Indian and Pacific Oceans but it has been introduced to the western Atlantic and has invaded the Mediterranean. It is a commercially exploited species in south-east Asia.
Charybdis hellerii has a hexagonal carapace which is convex and covered in long, soft hairs. There are grainy transverse ridges present on frontal, protogastric, mesogastric and branchial regions. There are six prominent frontal teeth: two sharp inner orbitals plus four blunt submedians, the median teeth have an elliptical lower plane which projects beyond the submedians, the lateral teeth are acutely triangular, separated from submedians by a deep V-shaped cleft. The inner supraorbital lobe is roughly triangular and the outer infraorbital lobe has a convex margin; there are six sharp teeth on the anterolateral margin which have black, brown or red tips and are separated by deep notches and of which the most anterior tooth is the smallest. The basal antennal article is swollen and excludes the antennal flagellum from the orbit. The claws are large, unequal and are covered in short, fine hairs with three spines on the anterior margin of the merus and a small spine at towards the tip. The carpus has a strong spine on the interior margin and three ridges on the external surface; chela has four spines on upper surface and a single spine close to the carpal joint, lower surface smooth. The merus and carpus of the fifth leg has a spine on posterior margin, the posterior margin of the propodus is toothed, the dactyl is oval in shape. In males the first pleopod is tapering and is curved towards the tip which bears spines. The carapace is a mottled brownish-grey in colour, the spines on the chelipeds have brown tips, while the fingers are distally black tipped with white.
Charybdis hellerii has a native range which encompasses the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa south to South Africa, east through the Indian Ocean and into the western Pacific north to Japan and south to eastern Australia. The type specimen was taken in New Caledonia.
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Wikipedia