oyster crab

American  

noun

1. a pea crab, Pinnotheres ostreum, the female of which lives as a commensal within the mantle cavity of oysters.

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oyster crab British  

noun

1. any of several small soft-bodied crabs of the genus Pinnotheres, esp P. ostreum, that live as commensals in the mantles of oysters

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Etymology

Origin of oyster crab

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

Offshore, the warming ocean has depleted once-expansive kelp forests around the Channel Islands and has thrown oyster, crab and urchin harvests into disarray.

From Washington Post

"Spillway openings are strongly associated with increased oyster, crab and other fisheries production in Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne for several years after the flood events."

From Scientific American

More than 70 percent of that catch came, not from ocean fisheries, but from coastal oyster, crab or shrimp - and not all of it wild.

From Washington Times

In an interview in Wittman’s Capitol Hill office, which is painted aqua and decorated with blue fish and trout he caught in the bay, Wittman credited the EPA program with renewing oyster, crab and fish populations — and said he will fight for federal funding to stay at current levels.

From Washington Post

After all, Louisiana alone pulls in some 6 million metric tons of seafood per decade, and Terrebonne Parish, which encompasses Cocodrie, is responsible for 20 percent of the state's oyster, crab and shrimp harvest.

From Scientific American