Yellow shore crab

Yellow shore crab

Taxobox
name = Yellow shore crab


image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Hemigrapsus oregonensis"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
ordo = Decapoda
subordo = Pleocyemata
infraordo = Brachyura
familia = Varunidae
genus = "Hemigrapsus"
species = "H. oregonensis"
binomial = "Hemigrapsus oregonensis"
binomial_authority = (Dana, 1851) The yellow shore crab ("Hemigrapsus oregonensis") is a small shore crab of the family Varunidae; it was formerly classified under the family Grapsidae. It is known under several other common names, including "hairy shore crab", "green shore crab", "mud-flat crab", and "Oregon shore crab". [cite web |url=http://zipcodezooforkids.com/Animals/H/Hemigrapsus_oregonensis/default.asp |title=Hemigrapsus oregonensis (Green Shore Crab, Hairy Shore Crab, Mud-Flat Crab, Oregon Shore Crab, Yellow Shore Cab, Yellow Shore Crab, Yellow Shore Crab) |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-08-08]

Despite its name, the body color of this crab can vary. Often, it has a light grey, green or yellow carapace with small blue/black spots and lighter colored legs with similar spots, but it may be red/brown with green spots.cite web |url=http://www.wallawalla.edu/academics/departments/biology/rosario/inverts/Arthropoda/Crustacea/Malacostraca/Eumalacostraca/Eucarida/Decapoda/Brachyura/Family_Grapsidae/Hemigrapsus_oregonensis.html#White |title=Hemigrapsus oregonensis |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-08-08] The legs with claws (chelipeds) are usually cream/white with no spots.cite book | last = Jordan | first = David Starr | authorlink = | title = Leland Stanford Junior University Publications | publisher = Stanford University, Calif: The University | series = University Series | year = 1908 | doi = | isbn = ]

This species typically lives in mud flats and can be found in large numbers in the San Francisco Bay, and coastal areas of Oregon and Washington states in the U.S. Its diet primarily consists of diatoms and green algae, but it will occasionally eat meat.

Although closely related, the adult "H. oregonensis" is smaller (3-3.5 cm) than another shore crab, the purple shore crab "H. nudus". [cite web |url=http://oregonstate.edu/~yamadas/crab/ch5.htm |title=Life History of the native shore crabs Hemigrapsus oregonensis and Hemigrapsus nudus and their distribution, relative abundance and size frequency distribution at four sites in Yaquina Bay, Oregon. |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-08-08] It can be distinguished from "H. nudus" by observing the legs and claws - the legs of oregonensis, but not nudus, are covered in many hairs called setae, while the claws of nudus, but not oregonensis, are covered in purple or red spots.

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • yellow shore crab — noun : a shore crab (Hemigrapsus oregonensis) of the Pacific coast that generally resembles the purple shore crab but is yellow or gray often with purplish brown or black spots, lacks red on the chelae, and has notably hairy legs …   Useful english dictionary

  • shore crab — noun : any of numerous crabs living between the tidemarks: as a. : green crab b. : a spider crab of the genus Libinia common along the eastern coast of the United States c. : any of several grapsoid crabs of the western coast of No. America… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Shore crab — Shore Shore, n. [OE. schore, AS. score, probably fr. scieran, and so meaning properly, that which is shorn off, edge; akin to OD. schoore, schoor. See {Shear}, v. t.] The coast or land adjacent to a large body of water, as an ocean, lake, or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • hairy shore crab — noun : yellow shore crab …   Useful english dictionary

  • Shore — Shore, n. [OE. schore, AS. score, probably fr. scieran, and so meaning properly, that which is shorn off, edge; akin to OD. schoore, schoor. See {Shear}, v. t.] The coast or land adjacent to a large body of water, as an ocean, lake, or large… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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  • Shore plover — Shore Shore, n. [OE. schore, AS. score, probably fr. scieran, and so meaning properly, that which is shorn off, edge; akin to OD. schoore, schoor. See {Shear}, v. t.] The coast or land adjacent to a large body of water, as an ocean, lake, or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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  • mud crab — noun 1. : any of numerous marine crabs (family Xanthidae) dwelling on muddy bottoms; especially : one of a widely distributed genus (Panopeus) found along both coasts of No. and So. America and near western Africa 2. : yellow shore crab …   Useful english dictionary

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