Shanghai hairy crab
| Chinese mitten crab | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Infraorder: | Brachyura |
| Family: | Varunidae |
| Genus: | Eriocheir |
| Species: | E. sinensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Eriocheir sinensis H. Milne-Edwards, 1853 |
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| "Chinese mitten crab" | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 大閘蟹 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 大闸蟹 | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 上海毛蟹 | ||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | dà zhá xiè |
| Wu | |
| Romanization | [da zaʔ ha] |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | shànghǎi máo xiè |
| Wu | |
| Romanization | [z̥ɑ̃̀hé mɔ ha] |
| External identifiers for Eriocheir sinensis | |
|---|---|
| Encyclopedia of Life | 1024100 |
| ITIS | 99058 |
| NCBI | 95602 |
| WoRMS | 107451 |
The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis; Chinese: t , s , p dàzháxiè, lit. "big sluice crab"), also known as the Shanghai hairy crab (, p Shànghǎi dàzháxiè), is a medium-sized burrowing crab that is named for its furry claws, which resemble mittens. It is native to rivers, estuaries and other coastal habitats of eastern Asia from Korea in the north to the Fujian province of China in the south. It has also been introduced to Europe and North America where it is considered an invasive species.
This species' distinguishing features are the dense patches of dark setae on its claws. The crab's body is the size of a human palm. The carapace is 3–10 centimetres (1.2–3.9 in) wide, and the legs are about twice as long as the carapace is wide.
Mitten crabs spend most of their life in fresh water and return to the sea to breed. During their fourth or fifth year in late summer, the crustaceans migrate downstream and attain sexual maturity in the tidal estuaries. After mating, the females continue seaward, overwintering in deeper waters. They return to brackish water in the spring to hatch their eggs. After development as larvae, the juvenile crabs gradually move upstream into fresh water, thus completing the life cycle.
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