Puget Sound King Crab
Lopholithodes mandtii
Marine Life of the Northeast Pacific (MLNEP) notes 7
Summary 8
The Puget Sound King crab, Lopholithodes mandtii, is a species of king crab which inhabits the oceans of the Pacific coast of North America from Alaska to central California. Adults are orange, red and purple in color, while juveniles are either mostly orange or have small blotches of red and purple. They can be recognized by their blunt bumps on their carapace. Puget Sound King crabs are larger than the similar brown box crab, with an...
Description 9
The Puget Sound king crab, also known as Lopholithodes mandtii, is an uncommon species of crab with distinct features that can be found on the West Coast of the United States; from Alaska to Central California. When they are born, juvenile Puget Sound king crabs are primarily orange with some patches of red and purple. As they grow into adulthood, the L. mandtii form a more mixed shell color of red, orange, and purple. They can also grow to be an average size of 6 - 10 inches, with a carapace, or the dorsal side of the exoskeleton, growing upwards of 30 cm wide.
This makes the Puget Sound king crab one of the largest crabs on the West Coast of the United States and yet it is still one of the hardest crab species to find. Another important characteristic of L. mandtii is the blunt, rounded bumps you will find all over them. Not only is this a necessary physiological trait that helps conceal the species in the subtidal, but the bumps also distinguish it from other closely related species, such as the brown box crab, Lopholithodes foraminatus, which has spinelike protrusions that are much sharper than the bumps on the Puget Sound king crab.
Fuentes y créditos
- (c) psinkins, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC)
- (c) Paul Norwood, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Paul Norwood
- (c) Peter, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Peter
- (c) Chris Teague, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), subido por Chris Teague
- (c) John D Reynolds, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por John D Reynolds
- (c) khango, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por khango
- (c) Shannon Schmunk, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA)
- Adaptado por Shannon Schmunk del trabajo de (c) Wikipedia, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://hub.toolforge.org/P3151:459608?lang=
- (c) Wikipedia, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound_king_crab
