Portunus trituberculatus
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| Portunus trituberculatus | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Portunus trituberculatus (Miers, 1876) |
Portunus trituberculatus, the gazami crab, Japanese blue crab or horse crab, is the most widely fished species of crab in the world, with over 300,000 tonnes being caught annually, 98% of it off the coast of China [1].
P. trituberculatus is found from Hokkaidō to South India, throughout the Malay Archipelago and as far south as Australia. In the Malay language, it is known as ketam bunga or "flower crab". It lives on shallow sandy or muddy bottoms, less than 50 m deep, where it feeds on seaweeds and predates upon small fish, worms and bivalves.
The carapace may reach 15 cm (6 inches) wide, and 7 cm (2¾ in) from front to back. P. trituberculatus may be distinguished from the closely-related (and also widely-fished) P. pelagicus by the number of broad teeth on the front of the carapace (3 in P. trituberculatus, 4 in P. pelagicus) and on the inner margin of the merus (4 in P. trituberculatus, 3 in P. pelagicus) [1]. Other related species include P. sanguinolentus and the much smaller P. haani and P. nipponensis.
[edit] References
- ^ a b FAO fisheries global information system. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
