Gecarcinucoidea | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
Infraorder: | Brachyura |
Subsection: | Heterotremata |
Superfamily: | Gecarcinucoidea Rathbun, 1904 [1] |
Families | |
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Gecarcinucoidea is a superfamily of freshwater crabs. Its members have been grouped into families in various ways, with some authors recognizing families such as "Deckeniidae", "Sundathelphusidae", and "Parathelphusidae", [2] but now only the family Gecarcinucidae is currently recognized. [3] [4]
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.
Cancridae is a family of crabs. It comprises six extant genera, and ten exclusively fossil genera, in two subfamilies:
Discoplax is a genus of terrestrial crabs. It is very closely related to the genus Cardisoma.
Parathelphusinae is a subfamily of freshwater crabs, which was formerly placed in the family Parathelphusidae; they are mainly found in South and Southeast Asia, but also found elsewhere in Asia and in Australia
The Gecarcinucidae are a family of true freshwater crabs. They are found throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia and New Guinea, with a single genus found in Australia.
Lybia is a genus of small crabs in the family Xanthidae. Their common names include boxer crabs, boxing crabs and pom-pom crabs. They are notable for their mutualism with sea anemones, which they hold in their claws for defense. In return, the anemones get carried around, which may enable them to capture more food particles with their tentacles. Boxer crabs use at least three species of anemones, including Bundeopsis spp. and Triactis producta. The bonding with the anemone is not needed for survival, however, and boxer crabs have frequently been known to live without them, sometimes substituting other organisms such as sponges and corals for the sea anemones.
Goneplacidae is a family of crabs of the order Decapoda and the superfamily Goneplacoidea. It includes the following genera:
Deckenia is a genus of freshwater crabs from East Africa, in the family Potamonautidae, or sometimes in a family of its own, Deckeniidae. The genus was named by Hilgendorf after Karl Klaus von der Decken who collected the first examples during his expeditions to Africa. Both species live in swamps from Eyl in Somalia to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, both in coastal areas and further inland. A third species, Deckenia alluaudi, lives in the Seychelles, and has been transferred to a separate genus, Seychellum.
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.
Heterotremata is a clade of crabs, comprising those crabs in which the genital openings are on the sternum in females, but on the legs in males. It comprises 68 families in 28 superfamilies.
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.
Matutidae is a family of crabs, sometimes called moon crabs, adapted for swimming or digging. They differ from the swimming crabs of the family Portunidae in that all five pairs of legs are flattened, rather than just the last pair, as in Portunidae. Crabs in the Matutidae are aggressive predators.
Eriphioidea is a superfamily of crabs, containing the six families Dairoididae, Eriphiidae, Hypothalassiidae, Menippidae, Oziidae and Platyxanthidae. They are united by a number of characters, including a marked difference in size between the left and right claws, where the larger one has a crushing tooth, and the smaller one does not, and the relative breadth of the male abdomen.
Metopograpsus is a genus of crabs, containing the following extant species:
Epialtidae is a family of crabs, containing the subfamilies:
Villalobosius is a genus of crabs in the family Pseudothelphusidae, containing a single species, Villalobosius lopezformenti. It lives in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and is adapted to a troglobitic lifestyle.
Cyrtocarcinus truncatus is a species of crab in the family Xanthidae that lives in the waters around Hawaii. It was described in 1906 by Mary J. Rathbun as Harrovia truncata, based on a single immature male specimen caught near Kauai. Masatsune Takeda transferred the species to his new genus Glyptocarcinus in 1979, and Peter Ng and Diana Chia erected a new genus, Cyrtocarcinus, for this species alone, in 1994.
Micropanope is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing one exclusively fossil species and the following species:
Atergatis is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Mathildellidae is family of crabs belonging to the superfamily Goneplacoidea, containing the following genera: