Flower Moon Crab
Matuta planipes
- Water temperature13–29 °C
- Best monthsApril, July, and October
- How commonRare
Photo credit: (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
About this species
Matuta planipes is a species of moon crab in the family Matutidae. It is a small colorful crab with flattened limbs. Matuta planipes, in contrast to other species of crabs inhale pure oxygen-water through an area near their eye sockets. This species of crabs enjoy spending their daytime hidden under some sort of shade such as a sand bed and they are more active during the night.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Matuta planipes”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
Loading the map
Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 21 records
- February: 21 records
- March: 21 records
- April: 33 records
- May: 27 records
- June: 23 records
- July: 52 records
- August: 33 records
- September: 26 records
- October: 35 records
- November: 29 records
- December: 27 records
Depth and water temperature
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 13–29 °C
Photos
(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) TonyT, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Dmitry Ivanov, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Sofia Zvolanek, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Roman Soroka, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Carman Chew, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
Names and classification
- English
- Flower Moon Crab
Names in 4 more languages
- Japanese
- アミメキンセンガニ
- Korean
- 그물무늬금게
- Thai
- ปูหนุมานลายดอก
- Simplified Chinese
- 沙隨, 紅線黎明蟹, 金錢蟹, 鑽沙蟹
Other scientific names: Cancer americanus, Cancer lunaris, Cancer planipes, Matuta appendiculata, Matuta flagra, Matuta laevidactyla, Matuta lineifera, Matuta rubrolineata, Matuta rubro-lineata
Similar species
Speckled Moon CrabAshtoret lunaris
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).
- 233 open-data records from 1798 to 2017.
- Species data updated November 4, 2026.
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