Callinectes marginatus
{{Short description|Species of crab}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Callinectes marginatus.jpg
| taxon = Callinectes marginatus
| authority = (A. Milne-Edwards, 1861)
| synonyms =
- Callinectes diacanthus var. africanus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879
- Callinectes larvatus Ordway, 1863
- Neptunus marginatus A. Milne-Edwards, 1861
| synonyms_ref = {{cite web |author=Peter Davie & Charles Fransen |year=2010 |title=Callinectes marginatus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1861) |publisher=World Register of Marine Species |url=http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=241106 |access-date=June 14, 2011}}
}}
Callinectes marginatus, commonly known as the sharptooth swimcrab or marbled swimcrab, is a species of swimming crab in the family Portunidae.
Description
Its carapace bears nine spines behind each eye, the last of which is around twice the length of the previous one, making the whole carapace around {{convert|10|cm}} wide.{{cite book |author=Wolfgang Schneider |year=1990 |title=Field Guide to the Commercial Marine Resources of the Gulf of Guinea |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization |chapter=Portunidae: Swimming Crabs |pages=186–188 |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/t0438e/t0438e00.htm |chapter-url=ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/t0438e/t0438e43.pdf |format=PDF}}
Distribution and ecology
Although the name Callinectes marginatus was used by Mary J. Rathbun and others to also cover animals now referred to the species C. larvatus and C. diacanthus, C. marginatus is now used only for a species found from the Cape Verde Islands and Nouadhibou, Mauritania to Angola.{{cite journal |author=Raymond B. Manning & Lipke B. Holthuis |title=West African Brachyuran Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda) |journal=Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology |year=1981 |volume=306 |pages=1–379 |url=http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/record/330033 |doi=10.5479/si.00810282.306}}
C. marginatus appears to be entirely marine, unlike some of its congeners, although there are records from the estuaries of the Congo River and the Hwini River. The crabs dig holes around {{convert|30|cm|abbr=on}} wide in mudflats.{{cite journal |author=B. B. P. A. van der Laan & Wim J. Wolff |year=2006 |title=Circular pools in the seagrass beds of the Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania, and their possible origin |journal=Aquatic Botany |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=93–100 |doi=10.1016/j.aquabot.2005.07.009 |url=http://www.marbee.fmns.rug.nl/pdf/marbee/2006-Laan-AqBot.pdf |access-date=2010-10-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724164841/http://www.marbee.fmns.rug.nl/pdf/marbee/2006-Laan-AqBot.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-24 |url-status=dead }}
References
{{Reflist}}
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Category:Crabs of the Atlantic Ocean