Carapace lyre-shaped, dorsal surface with conspicuous scattered tubercles, frontal region produced as a bifid rostrum, each half distally converging; postorbital teeth large and strongly expanded laterally; second and third segments of antennal peduncle not narrowing anteriorly. Chelipeds equal in size and stout; second to fifth pereiopods thin and sub-cylindrical, second the longest, male chelipeds longer than those of H. araneus, propodus noticeably swollen.
Carapace length up to 17 (61) mm.
Depth range from 2 to beyond 180 metres, on stones, mud and sand, clay-mud and among bryozoan and hydroid beds. Ovigerous February-December, larvae March-May.
Carapace deep reddish brown, pereiopods lighter.
Shetland, Orkney, Moray Firth, Aberdeen, Firth of Forth, North Sea, Northumberland, Dogger, Yorkshire, Wash, Thames, East Channel, Wight, Portland, Channel Isles, Plymouth, Scilly Isles, Bristol Channel, Cardigan Bay, Liverpool Bay, Isle of Man, Dublin, Belfast, Clyde & Argyll, Minch, Donegal Bay, Mayo, Galway Bay, Fastnet, Cork, Sole.