Data presented in the paper "Prey size selection in invasive (Hemigrapsus sanguineus and H. takanoi) compared with native (Carcinus maenas) marine crabs"

We investigated the prey size selection of two invasive Asian crabs (Hemigrapus sanguineus and Hemigrapus takanoi) which have recently invaded European coasts and compared their prey size preferences with those of native shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) which are known to feed on similar prey species. In laboratory experiments, we offered different size classes of native blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) to different size classes of the crab species in an effort to identify the respective prey size preferences and potential overlap in prey size range of native and invasive crabs.