Purple Footed Porcellan Crab

Petrolisthes laevigatus

• Group: Crab
• For divers: safe

This little porcelain crab shelters under stones on rocky intertidal shores, where it feeds not by hunting but by sweeping plankton from the water with feathery mouth fans. Despite the name it is not a true crab, and it sheds a leg readily if a predator grabs hold.

Taxonomy: Animalia › Arthropoda › Malacostraca › Decapoda › Porcellanidae › Petrolisthes

Species data via the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), AphiaID 431857.