Also referred to as Gulfweed crab or flotsam crab.
Conspicuous eyes in wide orbits at the corners of the wide front edge of the carapace. First pair of pereiopods – or walking legs – with a symmetrical pair of chelae – or claws – with cutting teeth. Four other pairs of legs adorned with spines on their last two segments.
Coloration variable, camouflaging the crab against Sargassum weeds : typically brown, sometimes tending toward yellow or red, but some specimens can be blue, often supplemented with large white patches to imitate the Sargassum background.About 20 mm in carapace length.
Pelagic crab, thought to be restricted to the Northern Atlantic. Another crab species (Planes major) was described in the Indian ocean, but both species have now been fused together under the name Planes minutus.
Two Oceans: A Guide to the Marine Life of Southern Africa (2007).
F*CK FISH 