''Macrobrachium carcinus'' is a species of

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

known as the big claw river shrimp. It is native to streams, rivers and creeks from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

to southern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is the largest known species of

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

freshwater prawn, growing up to long and weighing as much as , although even larger specimens have been reported. It is an important species for commercial fishing in the Sao Francisco area, where it is known by the local name of ''pitu''. ''M. carcinus'' is

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...

, with a diet consisting of molluscs, small fish, algae, leaf litter and insects. ''Macrobrachium carcinus'' has a tan or yellow body with dark brown stripes. Its

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a 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 called chelipeds. ...

are unusually long and thin, to facilitate foraging for food in small crevices, and may be blue or green in colour.

References

Palaemonidae Crustaceans described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Freshwater crustaceans of South America {{Caridea-stub