Florida Crabs: Species Differences in Crab Species Commonly Found in Florida

In our recent trip to the Punta Gorda area of Florida, we stayed in Burnt Store marina and had a wonderful time learning about the local aquatic culture. When we visited the Ding Darling National Wildlife refuge, we managed to arrive while the tide was out. This gave us the opportunity to spot a variety of crabs along with the more usual focus on birds.

If you decide to get up close and friendly with the local crabs, you should consider bringing along the following:

1) Field Guide to the Southeastern and Caribbean Seashore

2) Binoculars

3) Tackle, bait and fishing license

4) Butter (just kidding) See the links for a list of regulated species.

5) Rubber boots or surf shoes.

It's not necessary to get into the water, in fact, in many places in the NWR not allowed.

Here's my best guess list of crabs I found, where I found them, and how you can tell which ones they are. Our field guide explains there are over 28,000 species in Class Malacostracans, the class that all these fall into. For this reason, I list the names of the closest species since most of the species have similar characteristics. To select the species, I used body shape, color, location they were found and claw and leg characteristics. One picture showed a red-clawed marsh crab and said it was the coloring phase during mating, used as a threat. This could mean that they all have different color phases or just some. Clearly, I need to do more investigation.

The best places to find crabs at Ding Darling NWR is wherever there is a metal gate on a road over a spillway. Oysters and other reef creatures have collected along the rockeries at these points. Along piers and mangrove roots, and hiding in the sand. Note, horseshoe crabs are the most commonly seen shell in the area because they are so large and many raccoons like to dine on them.

Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus)