[3] I. phalangium resembles the closely related species Inachus dorsettensis, but has less prominent spines on the carapace.

[2] Inachus phalangium is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from Norway in the north to West Africa and the Cape Verde islands in the south, and extending into the Mediterranean Sea.

[4] The crab gains protection from potential predators by sheltering beneath the anemone's stinging tentacles.

[7] That name is therefore a nomen dubium, and it was suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 1964 at the request of Lipke Holthuis.

[8] The first valid description was Johan Christian Fabricius' publication of the name Cancer phalangium in his 1775 work Systema Entomologiae.