Many species of the brachyuran crabs in the family Calappidae, commonly known as ‘box crabs’ or ‘shame-faced crabs,’ look alike and are difficult to distinguish at various developmental stages based on morphology alone. Some crabs recently collected as a part of the South East Atlantic Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) groundfish surveys were identified as likely members of Calappidae, but could not be determined to species due to their unusual color pattern and size. The use of molecular data in combination with morphometrics suggests that the crabs in question belonged to Calappa flammea (Herbst, 1794). The specimens represent an undescribed unique color morph that deviates from their previous description and should be considered for future identifications. Several ecological factors can cause such color variations in crabs, but further investigation is needed to understand the drivers of the described phenotypic variance in C. flammea.

中文翻译：

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Calappa flammea 的一种新颜色形态（Herbst，1794 年），对 Calappa Weber 的分类有影响，1795 年（十足目：短尾亚目：Calappidae）

Calappidae科中的许多brachyuran螃蟹，通常被称为“箱蟹”或“羞脸蟹”，它们看起来很相似，并且仅根据形态很难在不同的发育阶段区分。最近作为东南大西洋监测和评估计划 (SEAMAP) 底层鱼类调查的一部分收集的一些螃蟹被确定为可能是 Calappidae 的成员，但由于它们不寻常的颜色图案和大小而无法确定为物种。分子数据与形态测量相结合的使用表明，所讨论的螃蟹属于 Calappa flammea (Herbst, 1794)。这些标本代表了一种未描述的独特颜色变形，与之前的描述不同，应考虑用于未来的识别。有几个生态因素会导致螃蟹出现这种颜色变化，