Blue crab

Natalie Richards

field guide

November 17, 2015

Blue crab

The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, lives in warm shallow brackish waters from Argentina to Nova Scotia. The blue crabs predators include sea turtles, fish-eating seabirds, and large fish. It eats clams, oysters, mussels, and smaller crustaceans. An interesting fact about the blue crab is that the scientific name, Callinectes sapidus, means “savory beautiful swimmer.” Blue crabs are ectothermic, meaning they are cold-blooded, and their body temperature is the same as their environment. Also, they are heterotrophs, meaning they don’t produce their own food. Blue crabs have bilateral symmetry. Blue crabs have a olive-green colored carapace and bright blue claws. Females have red on the tips of their claws. They are 9 inches from point to point, and 4 inches from head to tail. Blue crabs have many adaptations that help them survive in their environment. Such as its rear pair of legs act as paddles, so they can swim very fast. That is a structural adaptation. Next, a functional adaptation is that it has two, stalked compound eyes which are controlled separately and can lay back into the sockets in the shell. This helps protect the eyes. Lastly, a behavioral adaptation is that they have strong claws, used to capture prey. The domain for the blue crab is eukaryote, and the kingdom is animalia. The phylum is arthropoda, and the class is malacostraca. Next, the order is decapoda, and the family is portunidae. Lastly, the genus is Callinectes, and the species is sapidus. Blue crabs are so cool!