Liocarcinus vernalis
Encyclopedia
Liocarcinus vernalis, the grey swimming crab, is a small, shallow-water crab in the family Portunidae
. L. vernalis was thought for a long time to be a predominantly Mediterranean
species, but its known range was extended by a series of observations in the 1980s and 1990s. It ranges from West Africa
to the southern North Sea
.
Portunidae
Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs.-Description:Portunid crabs are characterised by the flattening of the fifth pair of legs into broad paddles, which are used for swimming...
. L. vernalis was thought for a long time to be a predominantly Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
species, but its known range was extended by a series of observations in the 1980s and 1990s. It ranges from West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
to the southern North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
.