Invasive Species

Use your mouse to magnify this Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus).  It is an invasive species that was most likely brought to the east coast of the United States from Asia in ballast water of large ships.  Asian shore crabs have become established in rocky intertidal habitats in Delaware and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic, where they compete with native species like the mud crab Panopeus herbstii.  Click on the thumbnails to see Asian shore crabs zoea and megalopae.