Carcinus maenas

Green shore crab
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Carcinidae
Genus: Carcinus
Species:
C. maenas
Binomial name
Carcinus maenas
A large male C. maenas, on top of a 5-gallon bucket for scale.
A large male C. maenas, on top of a 5-gallon bucket for scale
Two female C. maenas.
Two female C. maenas. Despite the possibly misleading common name, European green crabs are not only green. The underside of their carapace can range from green to yellow to orange to red. The best way to identify them is through other characteristics, such as the five spines on either side of their eyes, with three in between them.

Carcinus maenas is a common littoral crab. It is known by different names around the world. In the British Isles, it is generally referred to as the shore crab, or green shore crab. In North America and South Africa, it bears the name European green crab.

C. maenas is a widespread invasive species, listed among the 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species.[2] It is native to the north-east Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea, but has colonised similar habitats in Australia, South Africa, South America and both Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. It grows to a carapace width of 90 mm (3+1⁄2 in), and feeds on a variety of mollusks, worms, and small crustaceans, affecting a number of fisheries. Its successful dispersal has occurred by a variety of mechanisms, such as on ships' hulls, sea planes, packing materials, and bivalves moved for aquaculture. [citation needed]

  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. ^ "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species". Invasive Species Specialist Group. Archived from the original on 2019-02-23. Retrieved 2020-09-23.