Velvet crab

The velvet crab, or alternately velvet swimming crab, devil crab, “fighter crab”, or lady crab, Necora puber, is a species of crab from the North-East Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It is the largest of the swimming crab family (Portunidae) found in British coastal waters. The Onychophora is split into living families, the Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae. The Peripatidae family shows populations in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Neotropics with the only remains of fossils representing the members of the crown-group Onychophora. The Peripatopsidae family shows distribution in parts of Chile, South Africa, and Australia.[1] It has a carapace width of up to 100 millimetres (3.9 in), and is the only species in the genus Necora.[2] Its body is coated with short hairs, giving the animal a velvety texture, hence the common name. It is one of the major crab species for United Kingdom fisheries, in spite of its relatively small size.

Velvet crab
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Portunidae
Subfamily: Polybiinae
Genus: Necora
Holthuis, 1987
Species:
N. puber
Binomial name
Necora puber
Synonyms
  • Cancer puber Linnaeus, 1767
  • Liocarcinus puber (Linnaeus, 1767)
  • Macropipus puber (Linnaeus, 1767)
  • Portunus puber (Linnaeus, 1767)
  • Cancer velutinus Pennant, 1777

The velvet crab lives from southern Norway to Western Sahara in the North Sea and in North Atlantic as well as in the western parts of the Mediterranean Sea, on the rocky bottom from the shoreline to a depth of about 65 metres (213 ft). The last pair of pereiopods are flattened to facilitate swimming.

References
  1. Caitlin M Baker, Rebecca S Buckman-Young, Cristiano S Costa, Gonzalo Giribet (2021). "Phylogenomic, Analysis of Velvet Worms (Onychophora) Uncovers an Evolutionary Radiation in the Neotropics, 2021" (PDF). Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (12): 5391–5404. doi:10.1093/molbev/msab251. PMC 8662635. PMID 34427671.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. L. B. Holthuis (1987). "Necora, a new genus of European swimming crabs (Crustacea Decapoda, Portunidae) and its type species, Cancer puber L., 1767" (PDF). Zoologische Mededelingen. 61 (1): 1–14.


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