Helice tridens

Amazing fact

Ashihara crabs also eat sediment from the ground’s surface.

Helice tridens in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

Ashihara crabs also eat sediment from the ground’s surface.

SourceJapanese Association of Benthology — Seasonal and Diel Activity Patterns of Two Burrowing Mud Crabs, Helice tridens and Chasmagnathus convexus (Crustacea: Decapoda: Varunidae)

THE REAL WORLD

The real Helice tridens

Scientific name: Helice tridens
Japanese name: アシハラガニ
Group: Ocean animals

Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Varunidae
Genus: Helice

Facts about the real animal.

It lives in Japan from Honshu southward, and on the Korean Peninsula, the east coast of China and in Hong Kong.

鳥羽水族館 — アシハラガニ

It lives on shores where reeds grow.

鳥羽水族館 — アシハラガニ

When it senses people nearby, it escapes into the water.

鳥羽水族館 — アシハラガニ

How the Helice tridens lives

In a study of Ehime estuaries, it was active by day near its burrows during cool seasons. In that study, it tended to be active at night near burrows and the water’s edge at other times. It also eats seaweed, reeds and animals living on the bottom. It digs holes in mud and hides inside them.

Japanese Association of Benthology 岩手県

Basic data

Range: The eastern coast of China, Hong Kong, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan

鳥羽水族館

Where the Helice tridens has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan Asia Coasts

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

日本語: アシハラガニ
简体中文: 三齿厚蟹
繁體中文: 三齒厚蟹
한국어: 방게
Русский: Дальневосточный краб-хелице

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

鳥羽水族館 — アシハラガニChecked: 2026-11-04
Japanese Association of Benthology — Seasonal and Diel Activity Patterns of Two Burrowing Mud Crabs, Helice tridens and Chasmagnathus convexus (Crustacea: Decapoda: Varunidae)Checked: 2026-11-07
岩手県 — アシハラガニChecked: 2026-11-07

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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