AnimalvsAnimal
Birgus latro🦀

Photo: fearlessRich · CC BY 2.0

SpeciesDecapodaCoenobitidae
Invertebrates

🦀Coconut crab

Birgus latro (Linnaeus, 1767)

Birgus latro, comummente conhecido como caranguejo-dos-coqueiros ou caranguejo-ladrão, é um grande crustáceo anomuro, terrestre, encontrado em diversas ilhas tropicais dos oceanos Índico e Pacífico, sendo o maior artrópode terrestre do mundo. Está relacionado aos ermitãos, mas diferindo destes por apresentar o abdómen flexionado e sem a proteção de uma concha de molusco quando são adultos, embora os juvenis as utilizem para proteger os corpos moles.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
15
Photos
6
Measurements
5
vs you
≈ 1/16th of your weight
Also called
Palm Thief, Robber Crab
Conservation status
VUVulnerable

IUCN Red List assessment, 2020.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
4 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
40 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Coconut crab

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
4 kgmaximum recorded
SeaLifeBase
Details ↓

SeaLifeBase populates Weight independently of Length; the two are not guaranteed to describe the same individual. Verify before publishing.

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Carapace width
0.2 mmaximum recorded, carapace width
SeaLifeBase
Details ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Maximum lifespan
40 yearsmaximum recorded
SeaLifeBase
Details ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Danger to humans
poisonous to eat
SeaLifeBase
Details ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Volume l
4 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Coconut crab yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumArthropoda
  3. ›classMalacostraca
  4. ›orderDecapoda
  5. ›familyCoenobitidae
  6. ›genusBirgus
  7. ›speciesBirgus latro
Full lineage
  1. classCrabs, shrimp & kin · Malacostraca
  2. orderCrabs, lobsters & shrimp · Decapoda
  3. familyCoenobitidae
  4. genusBirgus
All 10 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classCrabs, shrimp & kin · Malacostraca
  4. subclassEumalacostraca
  5. superorderEucarida
  6. orderCrabs, lobsters & shrimp · Decapoda
  7. suborderPleocyemata
  8. infraorderAnomura
  9. familyCoenobitidae
  10. genusBirgus
More

More about the Coconut crab

In other languages
Cangrejo de los cocoteros (es), crabe de cocotier (fr), 椰子蟹 (zh), Krab palmowy (pl), סרטן הקוקוס (he), 야자집게 (ko) … and 26 more languages
More photos
Birgus latroCoconut Crab (Birgus latro)Coconut Crab (Birgus latro)
All 6 photos in the gallery →

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Tree of life

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