WHATSTHATFISH
Crustaceans

Golden Ghost Crab

Ocypode convexa

Also known as: Ghost Crab, Sand Crab, Shore Crab, Western Ghost Crab, Yellow Ghost Crab

Adult
@fishx6 · Blowholes, Quobba, Carnarvon, WA, Australia · February 20141 / 5
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Overview

The golden ghost crab is a beach crab that stays close to its burrow and often uses its claws to scrape flies from the underside of leaves.

It lives over open, gravel and sandy beaches in the high-tide area, in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

Like all crabs, these crabs shed their shells as they grow. If they have lost legs or claws during their present growth cycle a new one will be present when they moult. Newly moulted crabs are very vulnerable because of their soft shells. They are reclusive and hide until the new shell hardens.

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How to identify

COLOURS
Head & Mouth
black eyes
Behaviour
burrowing

Tap any trait to see other fish that share it.

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Habitat & where to find it

  • Range · Indian Ocean
  • Country only · 5
LIVES IN

Found over open, gravel and sandy beaches, often close to their burrows.

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Adult photos 5

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Discussion

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    ALL STAGES
    FOR THE MARINE-BIOLOGY CURIOUS

    Deep dive

    Taxonomy

    1. kingdomAnimalia
    2. phylumArthropoda
    3. classMalacostraca
    4. orderDecapoda
    5. familyOcypodidae
    6. genusOcypode
    7. speciesOcypode convexa Quoy & Gaimard, 1824

    SourcesWoRMSWikipedia

    06

    More in the family

    Crabs (Ocypodidae)