Glossary

Chinese river crab - (Eriocheir sinensis) refers to a square shaped carapace, a little longer than wide, markedly convex and uneven, bearing four sharply edged epigastric lobes. Propodus of the fifth pereiopod rather narrow and slender with dactylus claw-shaped.

Males produce an intensive mitten-like covering on the claws, with hairs both at inner and outer surfaces or only at the outer surface (always naked and smooth in other Eriocheir species). No longitudinal row of hairs on dorsal part of propodus in the anterior two pairs of ambulatory legs. Front with four acuminated and deeply separated teeth. Four anterolateral tooth distinct (not rudimentary). It is geographically distributed in Area of origin in temperate and tropical waters between East Russia (Vladivostock) to South-China, including Japan and Taiwan, with its centreof occurence in the Yellow Sea.