Gecarcinus | |
---|---|
Gecarcinus quadratus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
Infraorder: | Brachyura |
Family: | Gecarcinidae |
Genus: | Gecarcinus Leach, 1814 |
Type species | |
Cancer ruricola |
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 . [1] While all members of this genus are largely terrestrial, they have to return to the ocean to breed (the larvae are released into the sea). 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.
Image | Name | Common name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Gecarcinus lateralis (Fréminville, 1835) | black back land crab, Bermuda land crab, red land crab | South Padre Island, Texas, south to Macuto, Venezuela | |
Gecarcinus quadratus (Saussure, 1853) | red land crab, whitespot crab, halloween crab, moon crab, halloween moon crab, mouthless crab or harlequin land crab | Pacific coast from Mexico south to Panama | |
Gecarcinus ruricola (Linnaeus, 1758) | purple land crab, black land crab, red land crab, and zombie crab | Cuba and the Bahamas in the west through the Antilles to Barbados in the east | |
Gecarcinus nobilii (Perger & Wall, 2014) | red land crab, ghostly moon crab, colombian land crab | Pacific coast from Colombia to Peru | |
Tuerkayana hirtipes is a species of terrestrial crab.
Discoplax is a genus of terrestrial crabs. It is very closely related to the genera Cardisoma and Tuerkayana.
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.
Cardisoma is a genus of large land crabs. Three species formerly placed in this genus are now placed in Discoplax. 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, 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. They are omnivores, but primarily feed on plant material.
Pseudothelphusidae is a family of freshwater crabs found chiefly in mountain streams in the Neotropics. They are believed to have originated in the Greater Antilles and then crossed to Central America via a Pliocene land bridge. Some species of this family are troglobitic.
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.
Sesarma is a genus of terrestrial crabs endemic to the Americas.
Hexapodidae is a family of crabs, the only family in the superfamily Hexapodoidea. It has traditionally been treated as a subfamily of the family Goneplacidae, and was originally described as a subfamily of Pinnotheridae. Its members can be distinguished from all other true crabs by the reduction of the thorax, such that only seven sternites are exposed, and only four pairs of pereiopods are present. Not counting the enlarged pair of claws, this leaves only six walking legs, from which the type genus Hexapus, and therefore the whole family, takes its name. Some anomuran "crabs", such as porcelain crabs and king crabs also have only four visible pairs of legs. With the exception of Stevea williamsi, from Mexico, all the extant members are found either in the Indo-Pacific oceans, or around the coast of Africa.
Potamon is a genus of freshwater or semiterrestrial crabs mainly found from Southern Europe through the Middle East, and as far east as north-western India. The only exception is the North African P. algeriense, which also is the only potamid of mainland Africa. Twenty species are currently recognised. These crabs are omnivores that have a broad ecological tolerance. The adult Potaman reach up to 50 mm in size during their 10-12 year life span.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Karstarma is a genus of karst-dwelling crabs formerly included in Sesarmoides.
Johngarthia lagostoma is a species of terrestrial crab that lives on Ascension Island and three other islands in the South Atlantic. It grows to a carapace width of 110 mm (4.3 in) on Ascension Island, where it is the largest native land animal. It exists in two distinct colour morphs, one yellow and one purple, with few intermediates. The yellow morph dominates on Ascension Island, while the purple morph is more frequent on Rocas Atoll. The species differs from other Johngarthia species by the form of the third maxilliped.
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.
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.
Johngarthia weileri is a species of land crab in the genus Johngarthia from the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Johngarthia planata is a bright orange species of land crab that lives on inshore islands and the continental mainland coast of the tropical and subtropical Pacific coast of the Americas, including the Gulf of California, Costa Rica, Colombia, and continental mainland beaches of Mexico. The crabs are omnivorous and feed on seaweed (algae), vegetation and sometimes carrion.
Gordonopsis is a genus of deep-sea porter crabs in the family Homolidae. The Homolidae are also known as carrier crabs or porter crabs for their fifth pereiopods, which they use to hold objects in place over the rear half of the carapace in a possible defence mechanism against predators. Species of Gordonopsis are found in deep waters of the Indo-West Pacific region. The genus was erected in 1995 by Danièle Guinot and Bertrand Richer de Forges.