Hepu mitten crab identified in Vietnam
In Vietnam, the Hepu mitten crab goes by many names, such as cà ra, cua lông and cua da, depending on the locals of each province.
The Hepu mitten crab.
Researchers Paul F. Clark of the Life Sciences Department at the Natural History Museum (UK); zoologist Ngô Văn Trí of the Institute of Tropical Biology (Viện Sinh học Nhiệt đới, part of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology); a Turkish researcher; and scientists from the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore have reported the discovery of the Hepu mitten crab, Eriocheir hepuensis Dai 1991, a member of the family Varunidae. The finding corrects earlier records by some authors that misidentified the crabs in northern Vietnam as the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, an alien, invasive species, or as the Japanese mitten crab, Eriocheir japonica.
The study was published in the journal Crustaceana 96(5) in May 2023. The Hepu mitten crab is native to an area stretching from Quảng Ninh, Lạng Sơn, Bắc Giang (now part of Bắc Ninh province) and Bắc Ninh to Thanh Hóa in northern Vietnam.
According to local residents, when Hepu mitten crabs reach sexual maturity they migrate downstream to brackish and marine waters to breed; the larvae drift with coastal currents. The juveniles then migrate back upstream to the rocky beds of rivers and streams, where they grow and mature.
Worldwide, there are three other species in the mitten crab genus: the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis H. Milne Edwards, 1853; the Japanese mitten crab, E. japonica (De Haan, 1835); and the mitten crab E. ogasawaraensis Komai et al, 2006.
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