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Purple Rock Crab I found this little guy hiding in the rocks with his friends as I ventured around the rocky coast to a secret beach in New Zealand. The secret beach is well known among my husband's extended family and I was being initiated Hemigrapsus sexdentatus Click/tap to enlarge Species introCountry intro

Purple Rock Crab

I found this little guy hiding in the rocks with his friends as I ventured around the rocky coast to a secret beach in New Zealand. The secret beach is well known among my husband's extended family and I was being initiated

    comments (2)

  1. That's a great story. Do you know the species name? Posted 11 years ago
  2. Thanks. I think I found the species name. Jungle Dragon wouldn't accept "Purple Rock Crab", so I had to get more specific. They are very common around here. My husband used to go crabbing for them with his cousins. Posted 11 years ago

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''Hemigrapsus sexdentatus'', known as the common shore crab, is a large-eyed marine crab of the family Grapsidae, endemic to the coasts of New Zealand. However, it is not found in the Chatham Islands or the southern islands. It can grow to around 40 millimetres shell width.

Rock crabs are known to feed on sea snails by crushing their shells through the use of a chela . Paul Bourdeau, of the Stony Brook University, calls them, "the meanest organisms that I have ever come across".

Similar species: Decapods
Species identified by Wandering_Jewel
View Wandering_Jewel's profile

By Wandering_Jewel

All rights reserved
Uploaded Jul 2, 2014. Captured Dec 30, 2007 15:04.
  • DMC-FZ20
  • f/2.8
  • 10/1250s
  • ISO200
  • 72mm