Description: Coral-red or orange coloured crab, with widely spaced white spots on the carapace. Dactylus, tips of spines and joints on the legs are white. Smooth carapace, hexagonal, wider than long. Frontal margin of the carapace with four conspicuous lobes. Antero-lateral sides of the carapace bearing five acute teech, the posterior one extremely elongated.
Global Distribution: Northeastern and Western Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum carapace length at least 50 mm.
Age: Probably has a life span of more than 3 years.
Growth type: Negative allometric (carapace length vs body weight)
von Bertallanfy growth parameters:
Reproduction: Ovigerous females usually found in spring and summer. Males were found in deeper waters during the summer, whereas females showed the opposite pattern.
Maturity:
Behavioural ecology:
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: SeaLifeBase: 9 - 1455 m, usually 500 - ? m.
In the Canary Islands, it has been detected between 284 - 1152 m, with highest abundance between 600 and 800 m.
Habitat: Benthic, on all kinds of bottoms (mostly rocky and muddy-rocky), on the upper slope. It has also been detected on hydrothermal vents.
Feeding habits: Probably necrophagous.
Trophic level:
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Not commercial. Unfortunately it is the most commonly discarded crustacean species in the Algarve trawl fishery. Some experiments have been carried out in order to promote its utilization for the extraction of chitin and charotenoids.
Conservation status: Not evaluated.
Nutritional information & food safety:
REFERENCES
Biscoito M. (2006). Bathynectes maravigna. In Desbruyères D., Segonzac M., Bright M., eds. Handbook of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Fauna, second edition. Denisia 18, Linz, Austria, 544 pp.
Castro J.J., Hernandez-Garcia V., Santana-Ortega A.T., Cuyás C., Almonacid E., Hernandez-Lopez J.L., Cuscó R. (2011). Contribution to the biology of the deep-sea swimming crab Bathynectes maravigna (Prestandrea, 1839)(Decapoda, Pontunidae) in waters of the Canary Islands (Central-East Atlantic). Crustaceana, 84(2): 169.
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Manning R.B., Holthuis L.B. (1981). West African Brachyuran Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 306. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, USA, 379 pp.
