Haswell's Crab, Helograpsus haswellianus

The highest dwelling crab on most estuarine shores along the New South Wales shore and in South Australia is the orange to light brown coloured Haswell's Shore Crab.

It is a medium-sized shore crab with a very deep, smooth carapace. Mature males have very large claws.

This crab may be able to produce sounds. It has a stridulating ridge, just in front of the eye When the crab rubs a row of spines on its arms across this ridge, a scraping sound may be made.

Here an adult male Haswell's Shore Crab defends its burrow in the saltmarsh.

When a female crab has eggs, she is said to be in "berry".

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References:

Davey, K. 1998. A Photographic Guide to Seashore Life of Australia.
New Holland press, Sydney.