Xanthidae is a family of crabs known as gorilla crabs, mud crabs, pebble crabs or rubble crabs. Xanthid crabs are often brightly coloured and are highly poisonous, containing toxins which are not destroyed by cooking and for which no antidote is known. The toxins are similar to the tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin produced by puffer fish, and may be produced by bacteria in the genus Vibrio living in symbiosis with the crabs, mostly V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus.
Cancer is a genus of marine crabs in the family Cancridae. It includes eight extant species and three extinct species, including familiar crabs of the littoral zone, such as the European edible crab, the Jonah crab and the red rock crab. It is thought to have evolved from related genera in the Pacific Ocean in the Miocene.
Grapsus grapsus is one of the most common crabs along the western coast of the Americas. It is known as the red rock crab, or, along with other crabs such as Percnon gibbesi, as the Sally Lightfoot crab.
Leptograpsus variegatus, known as the purple rock crab, is a marine large-eyed crab of the family Grapsidae, found in southern subtropical Indo-Pacific Oceans. It grows to around 50 millimetres (2.0 in) shell width. It is the only species in the genus Leptograpsus.
Dromia dormia, the sleepy sponge crab or common sponge crab, is the largest species of sponge crab. It grows to a carapace width of 20 cm (8 in) and lives in shallow waters across the Indo-Pacific region.
Xantho hydrophilus, the furrowed crab or Montagu's crab, is a species of crab from the family Xanthidae. It is yellowish-brown and grows to a carapace width of 70 mm (2.8 in). It is a nocturnal omnivore that lives in shallow marine waters from western Scotland to the Cape Verde Islands.
Zosimus aeneus, also known as the devil crab, toxic reef crab, and devil reef crab is a species of crab that lives on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific from East Africa to Hawaii. It grows to a size of 60 mm × 90 mm and has distinctive patterns of brownish blotches on a paler background. It is potentially lethal due to the presence of the neurotoxins tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin in its flesh and shell.
Guinotellus melvillensis is a species of crabs in the family Xanthidae, the only species in the genus Guinotellus. It is a benthic crab with an ovate carapace within the subfamily Euxanthinae.
Atergatis is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Pisa armata is a species of crab from the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Carpilius maculatus, common names seven-eleven crab, spotted reef crab, dark-finger coral crab, and large spotted crab, is a species of crab in the family Carpiliidae, which also includes C. convexus and C. corallinus. While there have reports of the C. maculatus as being poisonous, biochemical testing has revealed that they lack any paralytic shellfish toxins.
Atergatis subdentatus, also known as the red reef crab, dark-finger coral crab or eyed coral crab, is a species of crab in the family Xanthidae.
Phalangipus longipes is a species of crabs in the family Epialtidae.
Myra fugax is a species of crabs in the family Leucosiidae.
Atergatis roseus, the pancake crab, is a species of reef crab from the family Xanthidae with a natural range extending from the Red Sea to Fiji. It has colonised the eastern Mediterranean by Lessepsian migration through the Suez Canal. The flesh of this crab, like many other species in the family Xanthidae, is toxic.
Charybdis hellerii, the Indo-Pacific swimming crab or spiny hands is a species of crab from the swimming crab family, the Portunidae. Its native range covers the Indian and Pacific Oceans but it has been introduced to the western Atlantic and has invaded the Mediterranean. It is a commercially exploited species in south-east Asia.
Actea savignii is a species of Indo-Pacific crab from the family Xanthidae which is one of the spiny-legged rock crabs. It has colonised the Levantine Sea by Lessepsian migration through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea since the mid 2000s.
Loxothylacus panopaei is a species of barnacle in the family Sacculinidae. It is native to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It is a parasitic castrator of small mud crabs in the family Panopeidae, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Panopeus lacustris, the knot-fingered mud crab, is a true crab belonging to the infraorder Brachyura. It can be distinguished from related species by its exceptionally broad and knobbly main chela (claw).
Eurypanopeus depressus, the flatback mud crab or depressed mud crab, is a true crab belonging to the infraorder Brachyura and the family Panopeidae. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean and is often found in estuaries and lagoons, commonly living in close association with oysters.
