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Pea crab



Pea crab

Pinnotheres pisum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Pinnotheridae
Genus: Pinnotheres
Species: P. pisum
Binomial name
Pinnotheres pisum
Linnaeus, 1767

The pea crab, Pinnotheres pisum, is a small crab that lives symbiotically in oyster and mussel shells. They are about the size of a pea but can be up to the size of a small walnut. It is also commonly called the oyster crab. They have a large tail flap that is used to cover eggs under the body when they are breeding, adding to the spherical appearance.

It is found from southern Scandinavia to western Africa, and throughout the Mediterranean in the mantle cavity of such bivalve molluscs as mussels, and inside ascidians.

Although researchers once thought that pea crabs were not harmful to their hosts, they have since found that their activities do cause some damage to the delicate gills of bivalves; and as such, these crabs are now considered parasites.

References

  • Answers.com

See also

  • Crustacean
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pea_crab". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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