- Yellow shore crab
Taxobox
name = Yellow shore crab
image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Hemigrapsus oregonensis"
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Arthropod a
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 familyVarunidae ; it was formerly classified under the familyGrapsidae . 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 ofOregon andWashington states in theU.S. Its diet primarily consists ofdiatom s andgreen 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 calledsetae , while the claws of nudus, but not oregonensis, are covered in purple or red spots.References
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