Carcinus aestuarii

Carcinus aestuarii
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Pleocyemata
Infraorder:	Brachyura
Family:	Carcinidae
Genus:	Carcinus
Species:	C. aestuarii
Binomial name
	Carcinus aestuarii; Nardo, 1847
Synonyms
	Carcinus mediterraneus Czerniavsky, 1884; Carcinus maenas aestuarii Nardo, 1847; Portunus menoides Rafinesque, 1817;

Carcinus aestuarii, also known as the Mediterranean green crab is a littoral crab, native to the Mediterranean Sea.

Carcinus aestuarii bears some similarities to Carcinus maenas and was sometimes considered to be a subspecies thereof, rather than a species in its own right, but a molecular biological study using the COI gene found the difference between the two taxa to be substantial, supporting their status as separate species.^[2] The two taxa can be visually distinguished by the front of the carapace, between the eyes, which is short and toothed in C. aestuarii but longer and smoother in C. maenas. Also, the gonopods of C. aestuarii are straight and parallel, whereas those of C. maenas are curved.^[3]

^ Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot; Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
^ Roman, Joe; Palumbi, Stephen R. (2004). "A global invader at home: population structure of the green crab, Carcinus maenas, in Europe" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 13 (10): 2891–2898. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2004.02255.x. PMID 15367106. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
^ S. B. Yamada; L. Hauck (2001). "Field identification of the European green crab species: Carcinus maenas and Carcinus aestuarii" (PDF). Journal of Shellfish Research. 20 (3): 905–909. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27.

[Ng-1] Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot; Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.

[2] Roman, Joe; Palumbi, Stephen R. (2004). "A global invader at home: population structure of the green crab, Carcinus maenas, in Europe" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 13 (10): 2891–2898. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2004.02255.x. PMID 15367106. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2020-07-13.

[3] S. B. Yamada; L. Hauck (2001). "Field identification of the European green crab species: Carcinus maenas and Carcinus aestuarii" (PDF). Journal of Shellfish Research. 20 (3): 905–909. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27.

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