Brown box crab

Brown box crab
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Anomura
Family: Lithodidae
Genus: Echidnocerus
Species:
E. foraminatus
Binomial name
Echidnocerus foraminatus

The brown box crab (Echidnocerus foraminatus) is a king crab that lives from Prince William Sound, Alaska to San Diego, California,[2] at depths of 0–547 metres (0–1,795 ft).[3] 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.[4] 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.[4] 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.[2] The gill chamber is also sometimes used by the commensal fish Careproctus to hold its eggs.[5]

Taxidermied museum specimen prepared in a position to show how the legs and claws form two foramens while folded

Fisheries

The brown box crab has been fished in California since at least 1984.[6] Take was minor and largely incidental until the mid 2010s, when landings by mass increased five-fold in 2017 relative to 2016[7] and remained above 20.5 t (45,000 lb) until 2023.[6] In 2019, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife launched an experimental fishery for brown box crabs.[7]

References

  1. ^ Stimpson, William (1859). "Notes on North American Crustacea, no. 1". Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. 7 (11): 49–93.
  2. ^ a b "Brown box crab, Lopholithodes formaminatus [sic]". Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b "Crab identification and soft-shell crab". Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b "MFDE: Landings By Value and Participation". California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  7. ^ 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.