crabs

Pyromaia tuberculata (Lockington, 1877)
Class Malacostraca Order Decapoda Infraorder Brachyura Family Inachoididae
classification
fire crab
morphology surface substrate habitat
1.5 cm
images: Shane Ahyong
Carapace pear-shaped and may be covered with short hairs (juveniles) or naked and glossy (adults).
Single rostrum projecting beyond eyes into a single blunt tip. Carapace covered with small tubercles
and bumps. Legs long, slender and spindly, first pair is the longest and last pair the shortest. Overall
dull olive brown-green.
Auckland, Kaipara, Manakau, Whangarei, Opua, New Plymouth. Occurs in variety of habitats
including rocky reefs amongst seaweeds, wharf pilings, under rocks, among sponges and other
fouling, sand/mud sediments. Usually in shallow water but may occur down to 650 m. Introduced to
NZ, Australia and Japan; native to west coast of North America.
to 650m
It could also be……….
Notomithrax sp. juveniles
Ahyong, S.T., Wilkens, S.L. (2011) Aliens in the Antipodes: Non-indigenous marine crustaceans of New Zealand and Australia. In Galil, B.S., Clark, P.F., Carlton,
J.T. (Eds), In the Wrong Place: Alien Marine Crustaceans: Distribution, Biology and Impacts. Invading Nature – Springer Series in Invasion Ecology 6, 451-485 pp.
Yaldwyn, J.C., Webber, R.W. (2011) Annotated checklist of New Zealand Decapoda (Arthropoda: Crustacea). Tuhinga 22: 171-272.
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