Malacostracans · Decapoda · Grapsidae

Marbled Rock Crab

Pachygrapsus marmoratus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The marbled rock crab — known in Spanish as cangrejo corredor or zapatero, and also as mulata, maragata or queimacasas in north-western Spain and juyón in the Canary Islands — is a decapod crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura. It is found on European coasts, from the British Isles to the Black Sea.

Size

up to 4.5 cm

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

OceanOmnivore Diurnal Solitary Ocean Crustacean

27countries 38parks 71dive sites1same family

Fun facts

It spends much of its time out of the water but needs to wet its gills regularly, so it always lives in the band where the waves break.
It can run sideways over vertical, wet rock faster than a person can follow it with their eyes.
This is the crab almost everyone has seen scuttling over the rocks of Mediterranean and Atlantic shores, named in Spanish for the dark marbling of its carapace.
It is semi-terrestrial: it spends a great deal of time out of the water and returns only to wet its gills.
The shape of its claws and the structure of its populations vary with how exposed the shore is to wave action.