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.
Calappa is a genus of crabs known commonly as box crabs or shame-faced crabs. The name box crab comes from their distinctly bulky carapace, and the name shame-faced is from anthropomorphising the way the crab's chelae (claws) fold up and cover its face, as if it were hiding its face in shame.
Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs. Its members include many well-known shoreline crabs, such as the blue crab and velvet crab. Two genera in the family are contrastingly named Scylla and Charybdis; the former contains the economically important species black crab and Scylla paramamosain.
Macrophthalmus is a genus of crabs which are widespread across the Indo-Pacific. It contains the following species : Species in this genus are often referred to as sentinel crabs.
Charybdis is a genus of swimming crabs in the family Portunidae. It is named after the monster Charybdis of Greek mythology.
Lybia is a genus of small crabs in the family Xanthidae. Their common names include boxer crabs, boxing crabs and pom-pom crabs. They are notable for their mutualism with sea anemones, which they hold in their claws for defense. In return, the anemones get carried around, which may enable them to capture more food particles with their tentacles. Boxer crabs use at least three species of anemones, including Bundeopsis spp. and Triactis producta. The bonding with the anemone is not needed for survival, however, and boxer crabs have frequently been known to live without them, sometimes substituting other organisms such as sponges and corals for the sea anemones.
Goneplacidae is a family of crabs of the order Decapoda and the superfamily Goneplacoidea. It includes the following genera:
Pilumnoidea is a superfamily of crabs, whose members were previously included in the Xanthoidea. The three families are unified by the free articulation of all the segments of the male crab's abdomen and by the form of the gonopods. The earliest fossils assigned to this group are of Eocene age.
Percnon is a genus of crabs in the family Percnidae. It has also been included in the family Plagusiidae as subfamily Percninae.
Actumnus is a genus of crabs in the family Pilumnidae. Alongside the 28 extant species, it has a fossil record extending back into the Miocene.
Dairoidea is a superfamily of crabs, comprising two families which each contain a single genus: Dairidae and Dacryopilumnidae (Dacryopilumnus) .
Grapsus is a genus of lightfoot crabs, comprising the following species:
Chlorodiella is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Liomera is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae. It contains the following extant species:
Atergatis is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Lophozozymus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Platypodia is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Pilumnus is a genus of crabs, containing the following species:
Around 65 species of crab occur in the waters of the British Isles. All are marine, with the exception of the introduced Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, which occurs in fresh and brackish water. They range in size from the deep-water species Paromola cuvieri, which can reach a claw span of 1.2 metres, to the pea crab, which is only 4 mm (0.16 in) wide and lives inside mussel shells.
