''Menippe adina'' is a species of crab, sometimes called the Gulf stone crab or Western Gulf stone crab. It is very closely related to the

Florida stone crab The Florida stone crab (''Menippe mercenaria'') is a crab found in the western North Atlantic, from Connecticut to Colombia, including Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, Belize, Mexico Jamaica, Cuba, The Bahamas, and the East Coast of the United State ...

, ''Menippe mercenaria'', of which it is sometimes considered to be a subspecies.

Description

Stone crabs have a hard

exoskeleton An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton (endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...

shell which is brownish red with gray spots on top but a tan underside. They have two large and unequally-sized

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer (biology), pincer-like organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through New Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are ...

(claws), which have black tips. The stone crab's carapace, or main shell, is and nearly wide. The males have a smaller carapace than females of a similar age, but

males Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

generally have larger chelae than females.

Range

The geographic range of ''M. adina'' overlaps with that of ''M. mercenaria'', extending from

Wakulla County, Florida Wakulla County is a county located in the Big Bend region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,764. Its county seat is Crawfordville. Wakulla County is part of the Tallahassee ...

around the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

state,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Fishery

Stone crabs are typically found feeding near jetties, oyster reefs, or other rocky areas, as well as in marshes, such as where blue crabs are, and can be caught with line or in traps. In most jurisdictions, only the right (usually crusher) claw of the Gulf Coast stone crab can be retained, which will regrow, and the crab is returned live to the spot from which it was harvested. The claw must be at least , as measured from the tip of the claw to the first joint beyond the moveable claw.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6498951 Commercial crustaceans Crustaceans described in 1986 Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Edible crustaceans Eriphioidea