Brown box crab
Brown box crab | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
Infraorder: | Anomura |
Family: | Lithodidae |
Genus: | Echidnocerus |
Species: | E. foraminatus
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Binomial name | |
Echidnocerus foraminatus (Stimpson, 1860)
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The brown box crab (Echidnocerus foraminatus) is a king crab that lives from Prince William Sound, Alaska to San Diego, California,[1] at depths of 0–547 metres (0–1,795 ft).[2] It reaches a carapace length of 150 millimetres (5.9 in) and feeds on bivalves and detritus. The box crab gets its name from a pair of round tunnel-like openings that form between the claws and adjacent legs when the animal folds its limbs up against its body.[3] Both claws, and their adjacent legs, have matching half-circle notches in them that line up to create a circle-shaped opening when the limbs are tightly pulled against one another.[3] This tubular round opening is called a foramen. The crab often lies buried in the sediment, and the two foramens in the chelipeds allow water into the gill chamber for respiration.[1] The gill chamber is also sometimes used by the commensal fish Careproctus to hold its eggs.[4]
Fisheries
[edit]The brown box crab has been fished in California since at least 1984.[5] Take was minor and largely incidental until the mid 2010s, when landings by mass increased five-fold in 2017 relative to 2016[6] and have remained above 45,000 lbs every year since.[5] In 2019, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife launched an experimental fishery for brown box crabs.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Brown box crab, Lopholithodes formaminatus [sic]". Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
- ^ Chevaldonné, Pierre; Olu, Karine (1996). Robbins, C. Brian (ed.). "Occurrence of anomuran crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda) in hydrothermal vent and cold-seep communities: a review". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 109 (2): 286–298 – via the Biodiversity Heritage Library. PDF
- ^ a b "Crab identification and soft-shell crab". Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
- ^ Peden, Alex E.; Corbett, Cathryn A. (1973). "Commensalism between a liparid fish, Careproctus sp., and the lithodid box crab, Lopholithodes foraminatus". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 51 (5): 555–556. doi:10.1139/z73-081.
- ^ a b "MFDE: Landings By Value and Participation". California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
- ^ a b Stroud, Ashley; Culver, Carolynn S.; Page, Henry M. (June 2024). "Size at maturity, reproductive cycle, and fecundity of the southern California brown box crab Lopholithodes foraminatus and implications for developing a new targeted fishery". Marine and Coastal Fisheries. 16 (3). doi:10.1002/mcf2.10291. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
External links
[edit]- Media related to Echidnocerus foraminatus at Wikimedia Commons
- 3D model at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History