10 Commercially Significant and Popular Edible Species of Crabs

Here’s a list of commonly known commercial species of crabs. These crabs are edible and commercially fish. These crabs are expensive seafoods.

1.) Red Frog Crab

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The Red Frog Crab is a unique-looking crab species. Its scientific name is Ranina ranina. The specimen on the above-photo was caught in Sasebo Seikai Pearl Sea Resort, Nagasaki, Japan. It is also commonly known as Spanner Crab. It can grow up to 15 cm in length and weigh as much as 900 grams. It is sold at a price of 400-500 pesos per kilogram in the Philippines.

2.) Bairdi Crab

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Bairdi Crab or Chionoecetes bairdi is a crab species that can be found in the Bering Sea. It is also commonly known as Tanner Crab. Commercially, it is called Snow Crab. It can live over a decade and can weigh as much as 1.8 kg.

3.) European Spider Crab

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The European Spider Crab or Maja squinado is a weird-looking migratory crab species found in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. They migrate during autumn with some crabs covering more than 160 km in eight months. This crab is the subject of commercial fishery, with over 5,000 tonnes caught annually. This edible crab is also known commonly as Spiny Spider Crab or Spinous Spider Crab.

4.) Japanese Spider Crab

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The Japanese Spider Crab is the world’s largest leg span of any arthropod reaching up to 3.8 meters and weighing up to19 kg. It can live up to 100 years and it feeds on shellfish and carcasses.

5.) Atlantic Rock Crab

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Atlantic Rock Crab or Cancer irroratus is a colorful crab species that can be found in the eastern coast of North America. This edible crab is fish commercially.

6.) Dungeness Crab

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The Dungeness Crab or Metacarcinus magister is a colorful species of crab that inhabits eelgrass beds and water bottoms on the west coast of North America. It can grow to 20 cm across the carapace. This popular sea food common name comes from the port of Dungeness, Washington in the US.

7.) Jonah Crab

The Jonah Crab or Cancer borealis is a commercially significant crab species that can be found on the Atlantic coast of North America. This crab with strong claws but not very aggressive has been fished on a small scale since the 1970s. Around 1,500 tonnes of Jonah Crabs are being caught annually.

8.) Red King Crab

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The Red King Crab or Paralithodes camtschaticus is probably the most popular and one of the largest commercially important crab species in the world. This crab, which is endemic to the Bering Sea, can attain a leg span of up to 1.8 meters. Red King Crab is heavily targeted by fisheries.

9.) Blue King Crab

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The Blue King Crab or Paralithodes platypus is another large crab species. It can be found near St. Matthew Island, the Diomede Islands and the Pribilof Islands in Alaska and along the coast of Russia and Japan. Blue King Crabs from the Pribilof Islands are the largest of all the king crabs. They can attain weight of up to 8.2 kg and are commercially harvested.

10.) Southern King Crab

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Southern King Crab or Lithodes santolla is a large king crab species found off the Pacific coast of South America where it is known as Centolla. It is a commercially significant crab species.

See also

• The World’s Most Colorful Crabs
• Freakiest and Weirdest Crabs in the World
• 20 Interesting Facts About the Japanese Spider Crab

20 Interesting Facts About the Japanese Spider Crab

Here’s a list of the most amazing information about the gigantic Japanese Spider Crab.

1.) Japanese Spider Crab is known in Japan as Takaashigani which literally means “tall-footed crab”

2.) It is known scientifically known as Macrocheira kaempferi.

3.) This marine crab species can be found in the waters of Japan, hence the common name.

4.) The Japanese Spider Crab has the largest leg span of any arthropod in the world reaching up to 3.8 meters or 12 ft from claw to claw and weighing up to 41 pounds or about 19 kg.

5.) The body of this crab may grow to a size of 40 cm or 16 inches.

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6.) The Japanese Spider Crab is unique from all other crab species. The first pleopods of males are unusually twisted, and its larvae appear primitive.

7.) In spite of its odd and ferocious appearance, this creature is known to have a gentle disposition

8.) The Japanese Spider Crab is orange, with white spots along the legs.

9.) Japanese Spider Crabs can be found off the southern coasts of the Japanese island of Honshu, from Tokyo Bay to Kagoshima Prefecture.

10.) They can also be found in Iwate Prefecture and off Su-ao, Taiwan.

11.) This unique marine creature can be found at depths of up to 600 meter, or as shallow as 50 meters.

12.) The Japanese Spider Crab is one of the most unusual aquatic pets in the world and requires a huge tank.

13.) In its natural habitat, this crab species feeds on animal carcasses and shellfish.

14.) The Japanese Spider Crab is one of the longest living creatures in the world living up to 100 years.

15.) Be careful in dealing with this gigantic crab because it has been noted that the crab was known to the Japanese for the serious injuries it can cause with its strong claws.

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16.) This arthropod is edible and is occasionally collected for food with a total of 24.7 tonnes collected in 1976 and 3.2 tonnes in 1985.

17.) This crab which is subject to small scale fishery is centered in Suruga Bay.

18.) The population of Japanese Spider Crab has decreased in number, forcing fishermen into exploring deeper waters in order to catch them.

19.) The average size of Japanese Spider Crab caught by fishermen is a leg span of 1.0–1.2 meters.

20.) When its legs are spread out, an adult giant Japanese spider crab can measure 12 feet across and its body can grow to be 15 inches wide.

See also

The World’s Most Colorful Crabs

Freakiest and Weirdest Crabs in the World

The World’s Largest Butterflies

Butterflies are amongst the most captivating and attractive flying creatures on the planet. As a manifestation of its beauty and elegance, there are hundreds of thousands of butterflies collectors from around the world.

Here’s a list of the largest butterflies in the planet. Two of them are from the Philippines. These winged-creatures are not just large they are also colorful and beautiful and they are among the most sought after species.

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Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing

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Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing or Ornithoptera alexandrae is the world’s largest butterfly. It was named for Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII of UK. Female species are larger than males with wingspan than can reach 31 cm and a body length of 8 cm. it can attain a weight of up to 12 grams. This gigantic butterfly can only be in the forests of Oro Province in Papua New Guinea. This species is critically endangered.

Goliath Birdwing

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The Goliath Birdwing or Ornithoptera goliath is the world’s second largest butterfly. It can only be found in New Guinea and has a wingspan up to 28 centimeters. The females are typically larger than the male like the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing. The Goliath Birdwing takes an approximate 15 minutes to emerge from its chrysalis because of its large wings.

African Giant Swallowtail

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The African Giant Swallowtail, which is almost as large as the Goliath Birdwing, is the world’s largest butterfly with a wingspan of 23 cm. It is scientifically named Papilio antimachus and is the largest butterfly in continental Africa. The female is smaller than the male. The butterfly has no natural enemies because it is very toxic, perhaps the most toxic of all butterflies.

Buru Opalescent Birdwing

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Buru Opalescent Birdwing or Troides prattorum is another large butterfly. It is almost as large as the Buru Opalescent Birdwing making it the world’s fourth largest butterfly. This butterfly is native to Indonesia in Southeast Asia.

Palawan Birdwing

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Palawan Birdwing or Trogonoptera trojana is a large butterfly native to Palawan in the Philippine. It has a wingspan of about 18 cm and flies the whole year. It ties with the Rippon’s Birdwing and Buru Opalescent Birdwing as the world’s 4^th largest butterfly.

Rippon’s Birdwing

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Together with the Palawan Birdwing and Buru Opalescent Birdwing, the Rippon’s Birdwing is regarded as the world’s fourth largest butterfly. Scientifically known as  Troides hypolitus, it has a wingspan of up to 20 cm.

Chimaera Birdwing

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Chimaera Birdwing or Ornithoptera chimaera is a large butterfly that can be found also in mountain areas of New Guinea and the island of Java in Indonesia. It is usually found above 1000 meters above sea level. Females are larger than males and usually reach a wingspan of 18 cm making them the world’s 6^th largest butterflies.

Ornithoptera Croesus lydius

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Ornithoptera Croesus lydius is a large butterfly that can only be found in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The price of a dead Ornithoptera Croesus lydius is worth $200. This rare birdwing lives in the forests of the swampy lowlands. The rich orange color on the males has made this a much sought after species. It ties with Chimaera Birdwing and two others as the 6^th largest butterfly in the world.

Magellan Birdwing

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The Magellan Birdwing or Troides magellanus is one of the word’s 6^th largest butterflies. This large and striking birdwing butterfly can be found in the Philippines and in Orchid Island of Taiwan. Obviously, this butterfly is named for the explorer Ferdinand Magellan who was killed in the Philippines in 1521.

Miranda Birdwing

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Sharing the honor for being one of the 10 largest butterflies in the world is the Miranda Birdwing or Troides Miranda. This birdwing butterfly can be found in Sumatra and in Borneo.

See also 

• World’s Most Beautiful and Colorful Butterflies 
• World’s Most Beautiful and Colorful Butterflies Two 
• Colorful and Unique Butterflies in the World 
• World’s Most Beautiful and Colorful Moths 
• The Twenty Most Toxic Caterpillars 
• Butterflies and Moths: The Good and the Bad + Amazing Facts

The Most Toxic and Deadliest Spiders in the World

Beware of these arachnids. Some of these spiders are aggressively dangerous and deadly. They are rank according to their lethal potential – their venom yield divided by their venom potency.

Here they are… the world’s most venomous spiders.

Banana Spider

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Banana Spider is scientifically called Phoneutria spp. It is also known as the Brazilian Wandering Spider. It was so-named because it wanders the floor of the forest at night instead of staying on its web. This highly aggressive creature is considered by the Guiness World Records as the world's most venomous spider. It can be found in Central and South America. It is known in Portuguese as Aranhas-armadeiras  which means Armed Spider

Sydney Funnelweb Spider

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The Sydney Funnelweb Spider or Atrax robustus is Australia’s deadliest spider and one of the most venomous in the world. This Australian critter is very deadly and can kill in minutes. This medium-to-large spider with a body length ranging from 2 cm to 7 cm is glossy and darkly colored. There is at least one recorded case of a small child dying within 15 minutes of a bite from a Sydney funnel-web spider but since the antivenom was developed in 1980, there have been no recorded fatalities.

Wolf Spider

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The Wolf Spider, formally named Lycosa raptorialerythrognata is a venomous species of spider that can be found in Central and South America. It is known as Aranha de grama in the Americas.

Black Widow

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The Black Widow or Latrodectus sp. can be found worldwide. It was so-named due to the behavior of the female of eating the male after mating. The Black Widow Spider is known for the neurotoxic venom latrotoxin it injects which is a comparatively dangerous spider bite, resulting in the condition latrodectism. The female Black Widow's bite is particularly harmful to humans because of its unusually large venom glands; however, Latrodectus bites rarely kill human beings if their wounds are given medical treatment.

Violin Spider

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The Violin Spider, also known as Recluse Spider, is a venomous spider that can be found in many parts of the world. It is scientifically called Loxesceles recluse. It size ranges between 6–20 mm but may grow larger. This arachnid usually has marking on the dorsal side of its cephalothorax, with a black line coming from it that looks like a violin with the neck of the violin pointing to the rear of the spider, resulting in the nicknames Fiddleback Spider, Brown Fiddler or Violin Spider.

Sac Spider

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The sac Spider or Cheiracanthium punctoriom can be found in Central Europe and central Asia. It can grow up to 15 cm in length. The bite of this venomous spider is similar to a wasp sting, perhaps a bit more severe, although susceptible persons can have stronger reactions, like nausea. It is the only toxic spider in Germany and can only be found in Kaiserstuhl region.

*Tarantulas

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Tarantulas are perhaps the most popular spiders in the world. These creepy-looking critters are becoming popular pets and are readily available in captivity. The four known most venomous Tarantulas in the world are Eurypelma rubropilosum, Acanthoscurria atrox, Lasiodora klugi and Pamphobeteus sp. Tarantulas are also called Athropodes. Despite their often threatening appearance and reputation, no Tarantula has been known to have a bite that is deadly to humans.

See also 

• World’s Most Venomous Snakes 
• The Twenty Most Toxic Caterpillars 
• The Most Poisonous Birds on Earth 
• World’s Most Venomous Mammals 
• The Deadliest and Colorful Frogs in the World
• The 20 Deadliest Plants on the Planet 
• Top 15 Most Venomous Cobras in the World
• Beauty and the Beast: 20 Most Venomous Fishes in the World 
• The Toxic Planet: Dangerous, Deadliest,Most Venomous and Most Poisonous Organisms 

Extreme Dinosaurs: Record Holders and Most Popular Dinosaurs

Undoubtedly, one of the most recognizable species of dinosaur is the gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex or simply known as T- Rex. Numerous monumental replicas of T-Rex can be found all throughout the world specifically in “dinosaur parks”. T-Rex means ”king of the tyrant lizard”.

Here’s a list of well-known species of dinosaurs.

Diplodocus

Diplodocus is a notable dinosaur species. This creature had the longest tail of all dinosaurs reaching up to 13 meters in length. Its name means “double beam”.

Sauroposeidon

Sauroposeidon is noted for its very long neck. It had the longest neck of all dinosaurs reaching a length of up to 1.2 meters for every individual vertebrae or neck bone. Its name means lizard Poseidon.

Utahraptor

Utahraptor is recognized as the fiercest of all dinosaur species. It measured around 7 meters and was very powerful, agile and intelligent predator. Its name means Utah’s predator.

Ornithomimid

Ornithomimid was as ostrich mimic tagged as the fastest dinosaur of all time. It can attain a speed of up to 60 km per hour. Its name means mimic lizard.

Hadrosaur

Hadrosaur is a dinosaur species with the most teeth. This herbivore had about 960 cheek teeth. Its name means duck-billed dinosaur.

Troodon

Troodon is believed to be one of the most intelligent dinosaurs. This smart hunting dinosaur is about 2 meters in length and had a brain the size of a mammal of today. It had stereoscopic vision and grasping hands.

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus is considered as the dumbest dinosaur. The size of its brain is the size of a walnut and measures 3 cm and weighed 75 grams only. Its name means roof lizard.

Amphicoelias fragillimus

Amphicoelias fragillimus is the longest and largest animal to have existed on Earth. Its length ranged from 40 meters to 60 meters and weighed as much as 122 metric tons.

Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus is the largest of all dinosaurs. It had a length of up to 23 meters and a height of up to 12 meters equivalent to a four-story building. Its name means arm lizard.

Compsognatus

Compsognatus is the smallest of all dinosaur species. It had a length of  1 meter and weighed about 2.5 kg. Its name means pretty jaw.

Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be named. The name of this large meat-eating therapod dinosaur means “great lizard”. It was about 9 meters in length and 3 meters in height.

Khaan

Khaan is a species of dinosaur with the shortest name. Fossils of this creature were found in Mongolia and its name means “lord: in Mongolian.

Microphachycephalosaurus

Microphachycephalosaurus has the longest name of all the dinosaur species. It was found in China and its name means “tiny thick-headed lizard”.

Coelphysis

Coelphysis was a dinosaur that lived during the Triassic period. This carnivore was found in North America and its name means “hollow form”.

Pliosaur

Pliosaur is an enormous marine dinosaur species discovered in Norway. It had an estimated length of up to 15 meters. This creature was named “The Monster”. Pliosaur means “more lizard”.

Velociraptor

Velociraptor is a carnivorous dinosaur species found in Mongolia in Asia. Its name means “quick plunderer”

Lesothosaurus

Lesothosaurus is a notable species of dinosaur found in Lesotho, Africa. This plant-eater lived 200 million years ago.

Herrerasaurus

Herrerasaurus was a carnivorous dinosaur that lived during the Triassic period. It was found in Argentina, South America and its name means “Herrera’s lizard”.

Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus is one of the largest and heaviest dinosaurs that ever existed. It was found in Argentina, South America. This very huge animal's length is estimated from 30 to 35 meters long and can way as much as 110 short tons. It is also known as Silver Lizard.

Triceratops

Triceratop is a dinosaur bearing a large bony frill and three horns on its large four-legged body. It is one of the most recognizable of all dinosaurs and the best known ceratopsid. It shared the landscape with and was preyed upon by the fearsome T-Rex.

See also

Top Ten Most Amazing Dinosaurs