Big Hand Crab

About this species

Heterozius rotundifrons, or big hand crab, is a species of crab of the family Belliidae, endemic to New Zealand. The carapace width is up to 25 millimetres (1 in).

Text from the Wikipedia article “Heterozius”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 60 records
February: 45 records
March: 53 records
April: 84 records
May: 39 records
June: 38 records
July: 31 records
August: 28 records
September: 37 records
October: 36 records
November: 41 records
December: 54 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–1 m · Deepest record: 2 m

0–10 m: 30 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 12–18 °C

12–14 °C: 21 records
14–16 °C: 2 records
16–18 °C: 14 records

Photos

(c) Emily Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Javier, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Javier, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Michael Berardozzi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Kelvin Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Big Hand Crab

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
241 open-data records from 1926 to 2023.
Species data updated November 3, 2026.