---
title: Elegant Reef Crab (Lophozozymus pulchellus)
scientific_name: Lophozozymus pulchellus
common_name: Elegant Reef Crab
taxon: Crabs
published: 2026-08-08T21:11:47.701Z
updated: 2026-08-09T05:40:25.843Z
tags: Elegant Reef Crab, Lophozozymus pulchellus, Crabs, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/crabs/elegant-reef-crab
---

# Elegant Reef Crab (*Lophozozymus pulchellus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Crabs (*Brachyura*)
- **Size:** up to 3 cm
- **Depth:** 1-25 m
- **Diet:** Detritivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coral rubble and dead coral heads
- **Reproduction:** Brooder, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous

## How to recognise it

- shell patterned in a fine reticulated network
- cream to pink ground with darker mesh lines
- flattened profile for slipping into narrow cracks
- width up to 3 cm

A flattened crab of about 3 cm (1.2 in), its shell patterned in a fine reticulated mesh of darker lines over a cream or pink ground - a network fine enough to look printed. The low profile lets it slip into cracks too narrow for a rounder animal.

This genus includes the crab responsible for the best-documented crab poisonings anywhere: a related species in the Indo-Pacific carries paralytic shellfish toxin and tetrodotoxin together, in quantities lethal to a person, and cooking does nothing. Whether this particular species is as dangerous is not established, and that uncertainty is exactly the reason to treat the whole family as inedible. Underwater it is harmless, nocturnal and secretive, and the pattern makes it one of the more attractive crabs to photograph among rubble.

## Also known as

- **French:** Crabe rond mignon
- **Japanese:** ベニヒロバオウギガニ
- **Russian:** Лофозозимус изящный

## Range

Indian Ocean, New Caledonian Exclusive Economic Zone, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Pacific Ocean, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/crabs/elegant-reef-crab)*
*Updated: August 9, 2026*