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.
Actaeodes is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Hepatoporus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Medaeops is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Paramedaeus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Forestia is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Gaillardiellus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Heteractaea is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Rata is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Glyptoxanthus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing eight species. It was originally erected by Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 1879 for six species previously placed in the genus Actaea and elsewhere. Although previously included in subfamily Euxanthinae, the genus has a quite distinct morphology from other genera in that group, and was placed in 2011 in the new, monotypic subfamily, Glyptoxanthinae by Jose Christopher Mendoza and Danièle Guinot.
Monodaeus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Coralliope is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Demania is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Liagore is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, native to Australia, containing the following species:
Microcassiope is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Neolioxantho is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Neoxanthops is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Pulcratis is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae.
Euryxanthops chiltoni is a species of crab found in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. It was first described by Colin McLay and Peter Ng in a 2007 paper, along with Medaeops serenei.
Colin McLay (1942-2022) was a New Zealand marine biologist and carcinologist. Educated at the University of Otago and the University of British Columbia, he served as an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Canterbury. He discovered several species of crab, including Desmodromia tranterae, Euryxanthops chiltoni, Gandalfus puia, and Hirsutodynomene vespertilio.
