Indo-Pacific Swimming Crab

Charybdis hellerii has a hexagonal carapace which is convex and covered in long, soft hairs. There are grainy transverse ridges present on frontal, protogastric, mesogastric and branchial regions. There are six prominent frontal teeth: two sharp inner orbitals plus four blunt submedian teeth, the median teeth have an elliptical lower plane which projects beyond the submedian teeth, the lateral teeth are acutely triangular, separated from the submedian teeth by a deep V-shaped cleft. The inner supraorbital lobe is roughly triangular and the outer infraorbital lobe has a convex margin; there are six sharp teeth on the anterolateral margin which have black, brown or red tips and are separated by deep notches and of which the most anterior tooth is the smallest. The basal antennal article is swollen and excludes the antennal flagellum from the orbit.

Charybdis hellerii has a native range which encompasses the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa south to South Africa, east through the Indian Ocean and into the western Pacific north to Japan and south to eastern Australia. The type specimen was taken in New Caledonia.

Charybdis hellerii has been cultivated in the Philippines and is commercially exploited by fisheries elsewhere in south-east Asia but where it is non native it does not have any market value and is not exploited.