
Purple Climber Crab
Metopograpsus frontalis
- Water temperature23–30 °C
- Best monthsApril, July, and November
- How commonOccasional
Photo credit: (c) Thomas K. Tse, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
Loading the map
Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 51 records
- February: 45 records
- March: 62 records
- April: 108 records
- May: 79 records
- June: 79 records
- July: 95 records
- August: 73 records
- September: 80 records
- October: 65 records
- November: 92 records
- December: 48 records
Depth and water temperature
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C
Photos

(c) Tim, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Tim · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Lawrence Hylton, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Tim, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Patrick Connolly, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist 
(c) Patrick Connolly, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
Names and classification
- English
- Purple Climber Crab
Names in 2 more languages
- Thai
- ปูแสมหิน
- Simplified Chinese
- 寬額大額蟹
Similar species

AlamihiMetopograpsus messor
CrabMetopograpsus oceanicus

Cliff crabGrapsus grapsus
Natal lightfoot crabGrapsus tenuicrustatus
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.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 396 open-data records from 1880 to 2023.
- Species data updated November 4, 2026.
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