It has large claws which are equal sizes and which are smooth with black spoon-shaped tips and which may be larger in males than females.

[3] Atergatis floridus occurs in the eastern Indian Ocean from south east Asia, south to Australia where it reaches Rottnest Island in Western Australia and possibly Sydney in the east, its range extends eastwards across the western pacific as far as Hawaii.

[1][8] The meat of Atergatis floridus, like that of many related crab species from the family Xanthidae is toxic.

The toxins are synthesised by bacteria of the genus Vibrio which live in symbiosis with the crab and the poisons are one similar to those found in puffer fish, i.e. tetrodotoxin, and also saxitoxin which is the primary toxin involved in paralytic shellfish poisoning.

A. floridus sensu stricto is found in the eastern Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.