What is the difference between flower crab and crab? A quick guide to tell them apart
Autumn is the season for eating crab, and the crabs at this time are very plump and fat, drawing countless food lovers, so do you know the difference between flower crab and crab?
1. The difference between flower crab and crab
Crab is the general term for crab species, and flower crab is a type of crab, generally referring to the distant-sea swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus). Because its shell has patterns, the flower crab is called flower crab by people.
2. Characteristics of the flower crab
The carapace of the flower crab is transversely oval, and the width of the carapace is slightly more than 2 times its length. The surface has rough granules, with soft hairs between the granules. The middle and posterior gastric regions, the middle branchial regions and the cardiac-intestinal region are raised, and the entire surface has whitish cloud-like markings; the frontal margin has 4 spines, with the outer 2 being larger; the anterior margin of the merus of the cheliped has 3 teeth, dark blue in males and dark purple in females; the dorsal surface of the carapace and chelipeds has white spots, cloud-like markings and light blue; the first pair of walking legs is the longest, and the last pair of walking legs is paddle-shaped and suitable for swimming, with the propodus and dactylus flattened and the dactylus oblong; the abdomen consists of 7 segments. In juvenile female crabs the abdomen is an isosceles triangle, and the ratio of abdomen length to width (the length of the suture between the 5th and 6th abdominal segments) is about 1.74:1. After mating, the abdomen of the female crab becomes oval, with a length-to-width ratio of about 1.23:1, and afterward the abdomen gradually becomes rounder and wider. The 2nd to 5th abdominal segments each have a pair of biramous pleopods. The abdomen of the male is a narrow triangle, with the 3rd to 5th segments fused and only indistinct segment sutures remaining, and the telson triangular, with the ratio of abdomen length to width about 2.95:1; the head appendages include 2 pairs of antennae, 1 pair of mandibles and 2 pairs of maxillae, and the thoracic appendages include 3 pairs of maxillipeds, 1 pair of chelipeds and 4 pairs of walking legs; the abdomen is located behind the ventral side of the carapace, covering the surface of the central groove of the ventral plate of the carapace, commonly known as the crab navel, pointed in males and round in females.
2. Nutrition of the flower crab
It can be eaten by the general population, and is especially suitable for people with bruises and injuries, broken tendons and bones, blood stasis and swelling pain, retained placenta after childbirth, and osteoporosis.
People suffering from colds, fever, chronic gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, dysmenorrhea and other conditions, as well as pregnant women, should not eat it.