Their coloration can vary but often includes shades of brown, gray, or green, helping them blend in with their surroundings.

These swamps offer a different ecological niche with shelter from predators and a rich source of food material.

[4] These man-made structures can support oyster colonies, which in turn provide potential habitats for the crabs.

The host type depends on the life stage of the individual; larvae typically feed on plankton while adults tend to parasitize oysters.

This oyster does not benefit in the process, its gills being constantly pierced and abraded until its ability to filter out food is hindered.

Once copulation has taken place, males typically die while females live long enough to lay eggs.

Off of every coast in the Pacific, Atlantic, Southern, and Indian oceans, it is likely that oyster crabs will be observed.

[11][12] Oyster crabs inhabit a wide range of invertebrate bivalves for nutrition and shelter.

Oyster crabs have been found within the gills of the mantle cavity or within the water conduction system of mollucs.

Their habitat regions include intertidal saltwater and marine aquatic biomes along the atlantic and pacific oceans.

[5] They are also distributed along the Atlantic coast of North America, ranging from Nova Scotia in Canada to Florida in the United States.

Males do not mature beyond this, but females will typically undergo four more stages, losing their swimming legs and growing a wider abdomen to become ovigerous (egg-bearing).

Oyster crabs are known to have precopulatory courtship rituals, consisting of tactile and olfactory cues.