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The Mud Crab is one of our biggest crustaceans; large examples may measure 200 mm across the shell and weigh rather more than 2 kg. The species inhabits muddy and mangrove-lined areas along the whole Queensland coast; in life, the body colour varies from green or greenish-brown to brownish-blue, marked with purple. The claws are very powerful and heavy, and make them dangerous creatures to any fisherman inexperienced in handling them; a massive claw can reach out with deceptive speed to crush a finger-nail into the flesh and against the bone.
Mud Crabs are captured by setting baited crab-pots and hoop-nets ("crab-dillies"). They are rightly regarded as a prized table delicacy, especially the great meat-packed claws; they are cooked by gently simmering for 20 minutes in salty water (about 100 g of salt to the litre).
Mud Crabs normally are bottom-scavengers; they occasionally cause a considerable degree of damage among oyster-farms, crushing the shells of young oysters to feed on these molluscs.
If handled carelessly, a Mud Crab may "cast" one or both claws, deliberately breaking off the limb at a suture line at its base by a powerful contraction of the muscle. The break is plugged with a pale-blue jelly of coagulated blood, and a new claw grows progressively larger with successive moults until the normal size of the claw is again attained.
The shell tends to be greenish in specimens captured shortly after moulting; at such times the body cavity has not filled with meat. Females carry their eggs as a bright yellow pad between the "apron" and the underside of the body; they are then termed "berried".
The taking of female mud crabs is prohibited in Queensland.
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