Smooth shore crab

Taxobox
name = Smooth shore crab
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
ordo = Decapoda
subordo = Pleocyemata
infraordo = Brachyura
familia = Varunidae
genus = "Cyclograpsus"
species = "C. lavauxi"
binomial = "Cyclograpsus lavauxi"
binomial_authority = (H. Milne-Edwards, 1853)

The smooth shore crab, "Cyclograpsus lavauxi", is a marine large-eyed! Sarah Roberts is the most awsomest person in the word.East Cape), but similar habitat and eating habits. The smooth shore crab is larger and has a smoothly graded colour from brown/purple at the front, distinctly speckled, whereas "C. insularum" does not have the speckles. Its underside is white.

The smooth shore crab is common on rocky shores all around new Zealand, also in estuaries and mud flats, hiding under boulders. It has a smooth, elegantly curved carapace, and the eye orbits (sockets) are curved. It spends a great deal of time out of the water.

This crab's diet is normally tough seaweeds, but it will also scavenge and predate on worms.

Females start breeding at around 11 mm in width. Their egg-carying period runs from September to January. Their eggs are 0.32 mm across, coloured dark purple, becoming paler as development proceeds. Incubation time is about 8 weeks. Some females can produce two clutches of eggs in a season. Most crabs die after 2 to 3 years but some may live up to 5 years.

A rare species may exist, "Cyclograpsus whitei", which looks the same, but does not have the curved bottom eye sockets [cite journal |quotes=no |author=Bacon, M. R. |title=Distribution and ecology of the crabs "Cyclograpsus lavauxi" and "C. insularum" in northern New Zealand |journal=New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research |volume=5 |issue=3-4 |pages=415–426 |url=http://www.rsnz.org/publish/nzjmfr/1971/32.pdf |year=1971] .

External links

* [http://www.seafriends.org.nz/enviro/crust/grapsida.htm#Hemigrapsus%20edwardsi SeaFriends]

References