tunnelling mud crab

{{Short description|Species of crab}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Tunnelling mud crab.jpg

| display_parents = 2

| genus = Austrohelice

| parent_authority = K. Sakai, Türkay & Yang, 2006 {{cite journal |journal=Raffles Bulletin of Zoology |year=2008 |volume=17 |pages=1–286 |title=Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world |author=Peter K. L. Ng |author2=Danièle Guinot |author3=Peter J. F. Davie |name-list-style=amp |url=http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/s17/s17rbz.pdf}}

| species = crassa

| authority = (Dana, 1851)

| synonyms =

• Helice crassa Dana, 1851 
• Helice lucasi H. Milne-Edwards, 1853 

}}

The tunnelling mud crab, Austrohelice crassa, is a marine large-eyed crab of the family Grapsidae, endemic to the sea coasts of New Zealand. Their carapace width is up to 40 mm.{{cite journal |author=Hsi-Te Shih |author2=Hiroshi Suzuki |name-list-style=amp | year = 2008 | title = Taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography of the endemic mudflat crab Helice/Chasmagnathus complex (Crustacea: Brachyura: Varunidae) from East Asia | journal = Zoological Studies | volume = 47 | issue = 1 | pages = 114–125 | url = http://zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/47.1/114.pdf}}