The red rock crab, ''Guinusia chabrus'', is a marine large-eyed
crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
of the
family Plagusiidae
The Plagusiidae are a family of crabs, formerly treated as a subfamily of the family Grapsidae, but have since been considered sufficiently distinct to be a family in their own right. The family Plagusiidae includes the subfamily Plagusiinae, com ...
.
It is found in the southern
Indian and southern
Pacific Oceans, including
South Africa,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand, and
Chile.
Description
A sturdy square bodied crab with a smooth dark red-brown carapace and yellow longitudinal ridges on the legs, yellow knobs on the pincers. There may be four white spots on the carapace in a roughly semicircular pattern.
Distribution
Southern Africa: Luderitz to Sodwana Bay, Subtidal to at least 100m.
[Jones, Georgina. ''A field guide to the marine animals of the Cape Peninsula.'' SURG, Cape Town, 2008. It is also found in the intertidal zone, such as a rocky shore environment in New Zealand and Australia ]
Ecology
Common on reefs. Often seen in crevices or hiding under other benthic organisms. Scavenger.
With ''
Haliotis midae
''Haliotis midae'', known commonly as the South African abalone or the perlemoen abalone, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Haliotidae, the abalones.
Subspecies
* ''Haliotis midae volcanius'' Patamak ...
'' it makes up the favoured diet of ''
Octopus vulgaris'' in
False Bay, South Africa.
References
External links
*
Closeup image on Flickr
Grapsoidea
Marine fauna of Southern Australia
Crustaceans of the eastern Pacific Ocean
Crustaceans described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
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