Abstract
IN the review of Peters and Panning's “Monograph of the Mitten Crab” published in NATURE of June 9, 1934, an account was given of the invasion of European rivers by this Chinese species, and the probability of its spreading to English rivers was pointed out. This seems now to have come to pass. About a fortnight ago, a living specimen was found on one of the screens guarding the pipes through which water is pumped from the Thames into the condensers at Lots Road Power Station in Chelsea. It is a full-grown male, the carapace measuring 63 mm. in length, by 68 mm. in breadth. The exact way in which the species has reached Great Britain is a matter for conjecture, but the possibilities of transport from the estuaries of Holland or North Germany are obvious. Some highly coloured forecasts have appeared in the daily Press regarding the damage likely to be caused if the crab becomes established in English rivers and estuaries. It can safely be said, however, that there is little ground for apprehension. On the Continent, the banks of rivers have been undermined in places by the burrows of the crabs, but the most serious damage has been caused to fresh-water fishes. In Great Britain, where freshwater fish have for the most part only a sporting value, the new addition to the fauna may justify some anxiety on the part of anglers in the eastern counties. There is fortunately no reason for anticipating that the crab will introduce into Europe the lung disease, paragonimiasis, of which it is one of the vectors in the Far East.
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The Mitten Crab in English Rivers. Nature 136, 673–674 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136673c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136673c0