Grimothea planipes, also known as the pelagic red crab,
red crab, or tuna crab, is a
species of
squat lobster from the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Description
Grimothea planipes is a bright red animal, up to 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long.[1] It resembles a true
lobster, but has a shorter
abdomen.[2]
Distribution
Grimothea planipes lives on the
continental shelf west of Mexico.[3] It is usually found only south-west of
San Diego,[1] but in warmer years, its
range may extend northwards into
California.[3] This is usually indicative of an
El Niño event.[4] Adults migrate vertically to near the ocean surface and large numbers occasionally wash up on beaches during warm water events.[3] The southern limit of the species' range is in Chile.[5]
Life cycle
The
life cycle of Grimothea planipes appeared for a long time to form a paradox: while an adult population was maintained along the south-western coast of the United States, the
planktoniclarvae they released were immediately swept by the
California Current thousands of miles out to sea. A solution was proposed whereby the larvae use an opposing
undercurrent at a lower depth to return to the continental shelf, and this hypothesis was confirmed by sampling different depths of water with a plankton recorder.[6]
^Ronald H. McPeak; Dale A. Glantz; Carole R. Shaw (1988).
"The ever-changing forest". The Amber Forest: Beauty and Biology of California's Submarine Forests. Aqua Quest Publications. pp. 32–41.
ISBN978-0-922769-00-1.
^Alan R. Longhurst, Carl J. Lorenzen & William H. Thomas (1967). "The role of pelagic crabs in the grazing of phytoplankton off Baja California". Ecology. 48 (2): 190–200.
doi:
10.2307/1933100.
JSTOR1933100.
^Carlos J. Robinson; Vicente Anislado; Antonio Lopez (2004). "The pelagic red crab (Pleuroncodes planipes) related to active upwelling sites in the California Current off the west coast of Baja California". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 51 (6–9): 753–766.
doi:
10.1016/j.dsr2.2004.05.018.