Spiky Stone Crab

Actaea peronii

Systematics Brachyura Family Xanthidae

Distinguishing Characters:
The shiny, tuberculate carapace is up to 25 mm wide and coloured from deep to pale salmon-pink. The tips of the chelipeds are dark brown. The chelipeds are also knobby while the short walking legs are covered with blunt spikes.

Habitat and Distribution:
The spiky stone crab is the most common crab along all of the southern Australian continental shelf but is rarely seen intertidally.

General Biology:
Nothing is known of the biology of this common, slow-moving subtidal species.