Cardisoma

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Cardisoma
Cardisoma carnifex.JPG
Cardisoma carnifex
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Gecarcinidae
Genus: Cardisoma
Latreille, 1828
Type species
Cardisoma guanhumi
Latreille, 1828

Cardisoma is a genus of large land crabs. Three species formerly placed in this genus are now placed in Discoplax . [1] The four species that remain in Cardisoma are found in warm coastal regions where they live in burrows. Young individuals are often very colourful with a purple-blue carapace and orange-red legs (leading to a level of popularity in the pet trade), but as they grow older the colours tend to fade, and females may be duller than males. Although less extreme than in fiddler crabs, one claw is usually considerably larger than the other. [2] They are omnivores, but primarily feed on plant material. [3]

Contents

Species

The genus Cardisoma comprises these four species: [1]

ImageNameCommon nameDistribution
Rainbow crab.jpg Cardisoma armatum Herklots, 1851(African) rainbow crab, (Nigerian) moon crab or patriot crabeast Atlantic coastal regions
Cardisoma carnifex.JPG Cardisoma carnifex (Herbst, 1794)red-claw crab Indo-Pacific coastal regions
Cardisoma crassum Costa Rica.jpg Cardisoma crassum Smith, 1870mouthless crabeast Pacific coastal regions
Blue Land Crab (Cardisoma guanhumi) (6852439208).jpg Cardisoma guanhumi Latreille, 1825blue land crab or giant land crabwest Atlantic coastal regions

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Mictyris</i> Genus of crabs

Mictyris is a genus of brightly coloured crabs, placed in its own taxonomical family, the Mictyridae. It inhabits the central Indo-West Pacific region. These crabs congregate on mud flats or beaches in groups of a few thousand, and filter sand or mud for microscopic organisms. They congregate during low tide, and bury themselves in the sand during high tide or whenever they are threatened. This is done in wet sand, and they dig in a corkscrew pattern, leaving many small round pellets of sand behind them.

<i>Tuerkayana hirtipes</i> Species of crab

Tuerkayana hirtipes is a species of terrestrial crab.

<i>Discoplax</i> Genus of crabs

Discoplax is a genus of terrestrial crabs. It is very closely related to the genera Cardisoma and Tuerkayana.

<i>Discoplax longipes</i> Species of crab

Discoplax longipes is a species of terrestrial crab. It is found in karstic caves on Pacific islands and ranges from the Loyalty Islands to French Polynesia. Mating occurs in the caves, after which the females migrate to the sea to release their fertilised eggs. The genus Discoplax was for a long time synonymised with Cardisoma, but was resurrected in the late 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gecarcinidae</span> Family of crabs

The Gecarcinidae, the land crabs, are a family of true crabs that are adapted for terrestrial existence. Similar to all other crabs, land crabs possess a series of gills. In addition, the part of the carapace covering the gills is inflated and equipped with blood vessels. These organs extract oxygen from the air, analogous to the vertebrate lungs. Adult land crabs are terrestrial, but visit the sea periodically, where they breed and their larvae develop. Land crabs are tropical omnivores which sometimes cause considerable damage to crops. Most land crabs have one of their claws larger than the other.

<i>Discoplax rotunda</i> Species of crab

Discoplax rotunda is a species of land crab in the genus Discoplax found in the Pacific Ocean.

<i>Gecarcinus</i> Genus of crabs

Gecarcinus is the type genus of the land crab family Gecarcinidae. They are found in warmer coastal regions of the Americas, including islands in the Caribbean. Four species from oceanic islands were formerly included in Gecarcinus as the subgenus Johngarthia, but are now treated as a separate genus, Johngarthia. While all members of this genus are largely terrestrial, they have to return to the ocean to breed. They are often colourful, with reddish, orange, purple, yellowish, whitish, or blackish being the dominating hues. This has resulted in some species, notably G. quadratus and G. lateralis, gaining a level of popularity in the pet trade.

<i>Johngarthia</i> Genus of crabs

Johngarthia is a genus of crabs in the land crab family Gecarcinidae, formerly included in the genus Gecarcinus, and containing six species. The genus bears the name of John S. Garth, a 20th century naturalist who specialized in crabs and other arthropods.

<i>Chiromantes haematocheir</i> Species of crab

Chiromantes haematocheir, commonly known as red-clawed crab, is a species of mudflat crab in the family Sesarmidae. It is endemic to East Asia and is quite distinct from the other species placed in the genus Chiromantes. The genus may be restricted to this one species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eubrachyura</span> Group of crabs

Eubrachyura is a group of decapod crustaceans comprising the more derived crabs. It is divided into two subsections, based on the position of the genital openings in the two sexes. In the Heterotremata, the openings are on the legs in the males, but on the sternum in females, while in the Thoracotremata, the openings are on the sternum in both sexes. This contrasts with the situation in other decapods, in which the genital openings are always on the legs. Heterotremata is the larger of the two groups, containing the species-rich superfamilies Xanthoidea and Pilumnoidea and all the freshwater crabs. The eubrachyura is well known for actively and constantly building its own burrows. The fossil record of the Eubrachyura extends back to the Cretaceous; the supposed Bathonian representative of the group, Hebertides jurassica, ultimately turned out to be Cenozoic in age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheiragonidae</span> Family of crabs

Cheiragonidae is a small family of crabs, sometimes called helmet crabs, placed in its own superfamily, Cheriagonoidea. It comprises three extant species, Erimacrus isenbeckii, Telmessus acutidens and Telmessus cheiragonus, there are no yet evidences of Cheiragonidae in the fossil record. Many of these crabs were formerly treated as members of the Atelecyclidae.

<i>Cardisoma crassum</i> Species of crab

Cardisoma crassum, known as the mouthless crab, is a species of terrestrial crab found in the coastal tropical eastern Pacific from Baja California to Peru.

<i>Austruca mjoebergi</i> Species of crab

Austruca mjoebergi is a species of fiddler crab discovered by and named after the Swedish zoologist Eric Mjöberg (1882–1938), member of a Swedish scientific expedition to Australia in the early 1900s.

<i>Austruca perplexa</i> Species of crab

Austruca perplexa is a species of fiddler crab. It is found from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan to India, throughout the Malay Archipelago, along eastern Australian coasts from Queensland to New South Wales, and in various Pacific islands, including Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu.

<i>Gecarcinus ruricola</i> Species of crustacean

Gecarcinus ruricola is a species of terrestrial crab. It is the most terrestrial of the Caribbean land crabs, and is found from western Cuba across the Antilles as far east as Barbados. Common names for G. ruricola include the purple land crab, black land crab, red land crab, and zombie crab.

<i>Karstarma</i> Genus of crabs

Karstarma is a genus of karst-dwelling crabs formerly included in Sesarmoides.

<i>Gelasimus vocans</i> Species of fiddler crab

Gelasimus vocans is a species of fiddler crab. It is found across the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea, Zanzibar and Madagascar to Indonesia and the central Pacific Ocean. It lives in burrows up to 50 centimetres (20 in) deep. Several forms of G. vocans have been recognised, with their authors often granting them the taxonomic rank of full species or subspecies.

<i>Geograpsus</i> Genus of crabs

Geograpsus is a genus of crabs in the family Grapsidae, containing four extant species, and one extinct species:

<i>Cancrocaeca</i> Genus of crabs

Cancrocaeca xenomorpha is a species of troglobitic (cave-dwelling) freshwater crab from Sulawesi, the only species in the monotypic genus Cancrocaeca. It has been described as the world's "most highly cave-adapted species of crab".

<i>Tuerkayana</i> Genus of crustaceans

Tuerkayana is a genus of large land crabs. It was created from two members of the genus Cardisoma and two members of Discoplax in late 2018 after a re-examination of the taxonomy of the family Gecarcinidae. Said re-examination also resulted in the creation of the new family Leptograpsodidae for the genus Leptograpsodes.

References

  1. 1 2 Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot & Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology . 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
  2. Mariappan, Pitchaimuthu; Balasundaram, Chellam; Schmitz, Barbara (September 2000). "Decapod crustacean chelipeds: an overview". Journal of Biosciences. 25 (3). Indian Academy of Sciences: 301–313. doi:10.1007/BF02703939. ISSN   0250-5991. PMID   11022233. S2CID   21474481.
  3. Donald B. Bright & Charles L. Hogue (1972). "A synopsis of burrowing land crabs of the world and list of their arthropod symbionts and burrow associates" (PDF). Contributions in Science . 220: 1–58. doi:10.5962/p.241205. S2CID   92490593. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-09.
  4. Guinot, Danièle; Ng, Ngan Kee; Rodríguez Moreno, Paula A. (21 December 2018). "Review of grapsoid families for the establishment of a new family for Leptograpsodes Montgomery, 1931, and a new genus of Gecarcinidae H. Milne Edwards, 1837 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Grapsoidea MacLeay, 1838)" (PDF). Zoosystema . 40 (sp1): 547–604. doi:10.5252/zoosystema2018v40a26. S2CID   92671389. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2019.