top of page

Crustaceans of Zihuatanejo

SUBPHYLUM CRUSTACEA

-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Arthropods (Phylum Arthropoda)

-Crustaceans (Subphylum Crustacea)

-Typical Crustaceans (Superclass Multicrustacea)

-Malacostracans (Class Malacostraca)

-Decapods, Isopods, and Allies (Subclass Eumalacostraca)

-Decapods and Krill (Superorder Eucarida)

-Decapods (Order Decapoda)

-Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimps, and Allies (Suborder Pleocyemata)

-True Crabs (Infraorder Brachyura)​

-Eubrachyuran Crabs (Zoosection Eubrachyura)

-Heterotrematan Crabs (Zoosubsection Heterotremata)

-Box and Moon Crabs (Superfamily Calappoidea)

-Box Crabs (Family Calappidae)

-Typical Box Crabs (Genus Calappa)

-Arched Box Crab (Calappa convexa)


The Box Crab, Lopholithodes foraminatus, is a type of King Crab that lives in shallow sandy flats along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California. They spend much of their time hiding in the sand with only their sensory and breathing structures at the surface. Folded up like origami, they don’t look like crabs at all and are difficult to see unless they move. When foraging for food, they walk freely over the ocean bottom on sharply pointed walking legs.

Arched Box Crab

Calappa convexa

Diet

  • Primarily molluscs, especially clams, snails, and bivalves, which it crushes using its large, powerful claws specially adapted for breaking shells.

  • Also feeds on small crustaceans, polychaete worms, echinoderms, and carrion.

  • Usually forages at night, emerging from the sand to search for prey buried in or on the seabed.

Range

  • Found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Magdalena Bay, Baja California, throughout the Gulf of California, and south along the Pacific coast of Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Ecuador, including the Galápagos Islands.

  • Occurs along the Pacific coast of Guerrero, including offshore waters near the Zihuatanejo region.

  • Recorded from the intertidal zone to about 60 m (200 ft), although some older records extend deeper.

Habitat

  • Inhabits sandy, muddy, mixed sand-and-shell, and rocky bottoms in coastal waters.

  • Frequently buries itself beneath the substrate, leaving only its eyes exposed to avoid predators and ambush prey.

  • Common on continental shelf habitats and occasionally taken as bycatch in shrimp trawl fisheries.

Size

  • Carapace width: Up to 15 cm (6.0 in)

  • Carapace length: Up to 10 cm (4.0 in)

  • Weight: Up to approximately 700 g (1.5 lb) in the largest individuals.

bottom of page