Zebra crab
Amazing fact
The strip where a zebra crab clips an urchin’s spines is about as wide as the crab’s shell is long.
宇久井ビジターセンター
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The strip where a zebra crab clips an urchin’s spines is about as wide as the crab’s shell is long.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Zebra crab
- Scientific name
- Zebrida adamsii
- Japanese name
- ゼブラガニ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Malacostraca
- Order
- Decapoda
- Family
- Pilumnidae
- Genus
- Zebrida
Where the name “Zebra crab” comes from
The zebra crab is named for its white and dark purple stripes, which resemble a zebra’s.
宇久井ビジターセンターIt lives as a parasite on sea urchins such as the iijima-fukuro-uni and the flower urchin.
How the Zebra crab lives
After clipping a strip of spines, it may move to another urchin.
宇久井ビジターセンターBasic data
- Diet
- Sea urchin spines and tube feet
- Range
- South of the Izu Peninsula
Where the Zebra crab has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
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
- ゼブラガニ
- 简体中文
- 斑蟹
- 繁體中文
- 斑蟹
- Español
- Cangrejo Erizo Cebra
- Français
- Crabe-zèbre
- Italiano
- Granchio zebra dei ricci
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 — ゼブラガニChecked: 2026-11-04
- 宇久井ビジターセンター — ゼブラガニ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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