Biodiversity & Conservation

Flying crab - Liocarcinus holsatus

Liocarcinus holsatus

Image Alan Ansell - Liocarcinus holsatus out of water. Image width ca 15 cm across.
Image copyright information

  • #
  • #
  • #
Distribution map

Liocarcinus holsatus recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Liocarcinus holsatus?
If so please submit your record.

Liocarcinus holsatus is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Arthropoda Arthropods, joint-legged animals, e.g. insects, crustaceans & spiders
Class Malacostraca Crabs, lobsters, sand hoppers and sea slaters
Authority Fabricius, 1798
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland All British and Irish coasts.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Found in rock pools, in the shallow sublittoral and offshore, on sand, gravel, mixed and hard substrata.
Text page icon Description Very similar to Liocarcinus depurator but lacking any ridges. The body is brownish-grey, tinged with green and grows up to 4 cm long. It is longer than it is wide, more or less smooth, without bristles. It has three blunt teeth between the eyes, the middle one sometimes shortest. It is host to the parasitic barnacle Sacculina carcini in some areas.
Identifying features
  • Lacking in transverse crenulations on carapace.
  • Three similar sized lobes on frontal margin, central one sometimes shortest.
  • Chelipeds equal, slender, with a sharp tooth on the outer edge of the carpus.
  • Orbits smaller, and posterior edge of carapace narrower, than in Liocarcinus depurator.
Additional information icon Additional information No text entered

This review can be cited as follows:

Emily Wilson 2005. Liocarcinus holsatus. Flying crab. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 25/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3698>