Menippe mercenaria, (Say, 1818)
The Florida stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) is a crab found in the western North Atlantic, from Connecticut to Colombia, including Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, Belize, Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the East Coast of the United States. The crab can also be found in and around the salt marshes of South Carolina and Georgia. The closely related species Menippe adina, the gulf stone crab, is sometimes considered a subspecies as they can interbreed to form hybrids, and they are treated as one species for commercial fishing, with their ranges partly overlapping. The two species are believed to have diverged approximately 3 million years ago. The species is widely caught for food.
The stone crab's carapace is 5 to 6+1⁄2 in (125 to 165 mm) wide. They are brownish red with gray spots and a tan underside, and have large and unequally sized chelae (claws) with black tips.
In addition to the usual sexual dimorphism exhibited by crabs, the female Florida stone crabs have a larger carapace than males of a similar age, and males generally have larger chelae than females.
Stone crabs can be found in 1⁄2–3 ft (15–90 cm) deep holes near dock pilings in water 1–5 ft (30–150 cm) deep. Oftentimes the hole will have shells around the opening; the crab uses the shell as a digging tool for the hole construction.
Florida stone crabs prefer to feed on oysters and other small mollusks, polychaete worms, and other crustaceans. They will also occasionally eat seagrass and carrion. Predators that feed on stone crabs include the horse conch, groupers, sea turtles, cobias, and octopuses.
Females reach sexual maturity at about two years of age. The male Florida stone crab must wait for the female to molt her exoskeleton before they can mate. After mating, the male will stay to help protect the female for several hours to several days. The female will spawn four to six times each season, which lasts all spring and summer and during which the females produce up to a million eggs each. The larvae go through six stages in about four weeks before emerging as juvenile crabs. Their lifespan is seven to eight years.
The Florida stone crab is usually fished near jetties, oyster reefs or other rocky areas, just as for blue crabs. The bodies of these crabs are relatively small and so are rarely eaten, but the claws (chelae), which are large and strong enough to break an oyster's shell, are considered a delicacy. Harvesting is accomplished by removing one or both claws from the live animal and returning it to the ocean where it can regrow the lost limb(s). To be kept, claws must be 2+7⁄8 in (75 mm) long, measured from the tips of the immovable finger to the first joint.
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