Japanese Spider Crab
Macrocheira kaempferi · Crustacean
The largest leg span of any arthropod, up to 3.7 m from claw to claw, though its orange, white-spotted body is only about 40 cm across and weighs up to 19 kg; it lives off the Pacific coasts of southern Japan on sandy and rocky bottoms 50 to 600 m deep, and climbs to about 50 m to spawn in early spring. A slow, placid scavenger that cannot swim, it walks the seafloor picking at carrion, kelp and small invertebrates; sailors told of it dragging men under, which is held untrue, though in 1836 Temminck wrote that the Japanese knew it for the serious injuries its claws can cause. It is a delicacy in Japan, eaten raw or cooked, caught with small trawl nets mostly in Suruga Bay and protected from January to April.
- Danger
- Dangerous if cornered
- How it is met
- Alone, by night
- Size
- Medium
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Gives
Sources
- William Riebel, Macrocheira kaempferi (Japanese spider crab). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, 2011.
- Japanese spider crab. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2026.
- Macrocheira kaempferi. Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre, 2026.
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