Pleuroncodes planipes:
"Red Crab of the open sea, (pelagic plankton) sometimes washes up on California beaches

The crab with the bright red color, found in the open ocean as pelagic plankton, but sometimes washes up on southern California beaches, is known to science as: Pleuroncodes planipes. Marine biologists call it a pelagic organism which means that is lives in the open ocean, rather than on the shore or bottom of the sea. This "pelagic red crab" can swim fairly well, but it is primarily at the whim of ocean currents such as the "George" Davidson Current. This warm water countercurrent occurs strongly during an "El Nino" year.

In Between Pacific Tides, Joel Hedgpeth (1962,p.445)wrote these few words, "These bright red creatures caused quite a stir: all part, perhaps, of the perturbation of the ocean in recent years." Earlier edition of Between Pacific Tides, did not discuss the "red crab." Ed Ricketts appears not to have experience the phenomenon up to the 1930s when Between Pacific Tides was published. However, in 1940, when Steinbeck and Ricketts made their expedition to the Sea of Cortez, they found thousands, if not millions of these "red crabs" as they neared central Baja California. They also found them in the Sea of Cortez near La Paz (Steinbeck and Ricketts, 1940).

In the spring of 2002, they are beginning to show up early in southern California offshore waters, and consequently also appearing on our beaches. On May 5, 2002, a mass beaching of hundreds, if not thousands washed up in Malibu, at the colony, homes of the rich and famous, such as Olivia Newton John. Once on the beach, they become food to gulls, crows, other birds, and even mammals such as fox, coyote, and perhaps even some rodents.

This "pelagic red crab" goes by many names, some of which are in Spanish. Here are the names that I have noted in the literature thus far:

Lobster Krill . . . Matthews (1932); Brusca (1980);
Langostino . . . Steinbeck and Ricketts (1940);
Pelagic Red Crab . . . Glynn (1961);
Red Lobster . . . Glynn (1961);
no common name given . . . Hedgpeth (1962);
Red Crab . . . Boyd (1967);
Pelagic Crab . . . Boyd (1967);
no common name given . . . Longhurst (1971);
Scarlet Lobsterette . . . Brusca (1980);
Pelagic Red Lobster . . Brusca (1980);

Of course, scientists in Mexico and America, as well as anywhere in the world have one unified global name for this crab: Pleuroncodes planipes.

1860. Stimpson, W. Notes on North American Crustacea, in the Museum of of the Smithsonian Institution. No.II. Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist., N.Y. 7:176-246.

1921. Schmitt, W. The marine decapod crustacea of California. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 23:1-470.

1932. Matthews, L.H. Lobster-krill, anomuran Crustacea that are the food of whales. Discovery Report 5: 467-484.

1940. Steinbeck, J. and E. Ricketts. Sea of Cortez.

1940. Ricketts, E. Sea of Cortez Field Journal in Joel Hedgpeth (1978), editor, The Outer Shores, 1978.

1961. Glynn, P. "Red Lobster." California Fish and Game 47(1):97-101.

1967. Boyd, C.M. "Red Lobster." Pacific Science 21:394-403.

1961. Radovich, J. Relationships of some marine organisms of the northeast Pacific to water temperatures particularly during 1957 through 1959. Fish Bulletin 112. California Department of Fish and Game

1962. Ricketts, E. Between Pacific Tides. 3rd Edition, with revisions.

1968. Ricketts, E. Between Pacific Tides. 4th Edition.

1970. Haig, Janet. The Shallow Water Anomuran Crab Fauna of Southwestern Baja California, Mexico. Transactions San Diego Society Natural History, volume 16:13-32

1971. Longhurst, A. "Red Lobster." Pacific Science 25:426-428.

1980. Richard Brusca: Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California.

1980. Abbott, D. Intertidal Invertebrates of California.

1985. Ricketts, E. Between Pacific Tides. 5th Edition.