The Florida stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) is a crab found in the western North Atlantic, from Connecticut to Colombia, including Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, Belize, Mexico Jamaica, Cuba, The Bahamas, and the East Coast of the United States. The crab can also be found in and around the salt marshes of South Carolina and Georgia. It is widely caught for food. The closely related species Menippe adina (gulf stone crab) is sometimes considered a subspecies – they can interbreed, forming hybrids – and they are treated as one species for commercial fishing, with their ranges partly overlapping. The two species are believed to have diverged approximately 3 million years ago. Description The stone crab's carapace is wide. They are brownish red with gray spots and a tan underside, and have large and unequally sized chelae (claws) with black tips. In addition to the usual sexual dimorphism exhibited by crabs, the female Florida stone crabs have a larger carapace than males of a similar age, and males generally have larger chelae than females. Eating habits Florida stone crabs prefer to feed on oysters and other small mollusks, polychaete worms, and other crustaceans. They will also occasionally eat seagrass and carrion. Predators that feed on stone crabs include horse conch, grouper, sea turtles, cobia, and octopuses. Habitats Stone crabs can be found in deep holes near dock pilings in water deep. Oftentimes the hole will have shells around the opening; the crab uses the shell as a digging tool for the hole construction. Reproduction Females reach sexual maturity at about two years of age. Their long spawning season lasts all spring and summer, during which time females produce up to a million eggs. The larvae go through six stages in about four weeks before emerging as juvenile crabs. Their lifespan is seven to eight years. The male Florida stone crab must wait for the female to molt her exoskeleton before they can mate. After mating, the male will stay to help protect the female for several hours to several days. The female will spawn four to six times each season. Molting The Florida stone crab loses its limbs easily to escape from predators or tight spaces, but their limbs will grow back. When a claw is broken such that the diaphragm at the body/claw joint is left intact, the wound will quickly heal itself and very little blood is lost. If,