A smaller relative of the splendid crab, about 4 cm (1.6 in) across, with a shell divided into raised lobes separated by clear grooves - a sculpted look quite different from the smooth dome of its larger cousin. Cream to pale brown with darker markings in the grooves, and the usual black claw tips of the family.
It lives in rubble and dead coral, hiding by day and feeding at night on hard-shelled prey. Xanthid crabs are the largest family of crabs in the world and the hardest to identify, separated on the arrangement of lobes and teeth rather than on colour, so a photograph of the shell from directly above is worth far more than a portrait. As with the rest of the family, the flesh may carry toxins and the animal should be left where it is.
How to recognise it
- shell divided into distinct raised lobes
- cream to pale brown with darker markings between the lobes
- black-tipped claws, the larger one noticeably stouter
- width up to 4 cm
