[See LAND sb. 11.] Any of the various species of crabs that live mostly on land but resort to the sea for breeding.
1638. T. Verney, To Sir E. Verney, in Verney Papers (1853), 195. Thees land-crabs are innumerable,… they are very like our sea-crabs, but nothing att all soe good, becaus most of them are poysonous.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 74. Some Papua people brought me land crabs, shaped like lobsters.
1871. Mateer, Travancore, 92. Landcrabs burrow in the rice fields, and are used as food by the slave castes.
transf. 1665. Hooke, Microgr., 178. The little Mite-worm, which I call a Land-crab.
