buckram

Callinectes sapidus
#nm_0617📍 International
Language
English
Transliteration
buckram

From Middle English bokeram (a coarse stiffened fabric) ↳ From Old French boquerant, origin uncertain, possibly ultimately named for Bukhara, the Central Asian city ↳ applied to the moult stage where the new shell has stiffened like the fabric but is not yet fully hard

Swimming crab (Portunidae) native to the western Atlantic from Cape Cod to Argentina. Distinctive blue coloration, carapace up to 23cm wide. Invasive in the Mediterranean, where it threatens native mollusk populations.