A smooth, domed, orange-red crab with paler mottling and an outline free of spines or teeth, reaching about 5 cm (2 in). Everything about it is rounded, which suits an animal that spends its life wedged in cracks rather than fighting.
It stays deep in crevices and under overhangs by day and feeds at night on detritus and algal film. Like the other large members of its family it is best assumed toxic; the smooth bright shell carries the same warning as the smaller red crabs on the same reef. Finding one usually means a torch pointed into a hole and a pair of eyes looking back, since the crab retreats rather than runs and rarely leaves cover entirely.
How to recognise it
- smooth domed shell, orange-red with paler mottling
- broad rounded outline with no spines or teeth
- stays deep in crevices, rarely fully exposed
- width up to 5 cm
