A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Eriocheir sinensis
Mitten Crabs are one of very few crabs in North America found in freshwater. Adults and juveniles (>1 inch) have furry white-tipped claws that are equal in size. Their light brown to olive green body (carapace) is is 3 to 4 inches wide in adults, it's smooth and round and has a 4 lateral spines (behind each eye), although the forth spine may be small.There is a U-shaped notch in the carapace between the crab’s eyes. They have four sharp-tipped walking legs and a claw on each side, but lack a modified swimming leg or paddle. The legs are over twice the length of the carapace.
Freshwater and estuaries in California, Mid-Atlantic from Maryland to New York and its potential range includes coastal waters from Virginia to Texas, the Great Lakes, and US Gulf Coast.
For more information visit http://mittencrab.nisbase.org/
Spotted on Jul 18, 2011
Submitted on Jul 18, 2011
2 Comments
Great spotting! I've moved this to Arthropods for you.
MonacaNoble, It seems like a natural match for Project Noah and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (and other groups like Nat. Geo.) to team up...especially where citizen scientists with their digital cameras and GPS cell phones can document sitings more so than "a picture dumping site with no details or identifications." This way the professional scientists have more than an unverified story to go on and can confirm reports.