A fiddler crab, sometimes known as a calling crab, may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae. A smaller number of ghost crab and mangrove crab species are also found in the family Ocypodidae. This entire group is composed of small crabs, the largest being slightly over two inches (5 cm) across. Fiddler crabs are found along sea beaches and brackish intertidal mud flats, lagoons and swamps. Fiddler crabs are most well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, while the females' claws are both the same size.
Xanthidae is a family of crabs known as gorilla crabs, mud crabs, pebble crabs or rubble crabs. Xanthid crabs are often brightly coloured and are highly poisonous, containing toxins which are not destroyed by cooking and for which no antidote is known. The toxins are similar to the tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin produced by puffer fish, and may be produced by bacteria in the genus Vibrio living in symbiosis with the crabs, mostly V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus.
Pinnotheres is a genus of crabs, including the pea crab. Many species formerly in Pinnotheres have been placed in new genera, such as Zaops ostreus, the oyster crab and Nepinnotheres novaezelandiae, the New Zealand pea crab. The species currently recognised in the genus Pinnotheres are:
Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs.
Majidae is a family of crabs, comprising around 200 marine species inside 52 genera, with a carapace that is longer than it is broad, and which forms a point at the front. The legs can be very long in some species, leading to the name "spider crab". The exoskeleton is covered with bristles to which the crab attaches algae and other items to act as camouflage.
Macrophthalmus is a genus of crabs which are widespread across the Indo-Pacific. It contains the following species :
Parthenopidae is a family of crabs, placed in its own superfamily, Parthenopoidea. It comprises nearly 40 genera, divided into two subfamilies, with three genera incertae sedis:
Ozius is a genus of crabs in the family Menippidae, containing the following species:
Calappidae is a family of crabs containing 16 genera, of which 7 are only known as fossils:
Pilumnoidea is a superfamily of crabs, whose members were previously included in the Xanthoidea. The three families are unified by the free articulation of all the segments of the male crab's abdomen and by the form of the gonopods. The earliest fossils assigned to this group are of Eocene age.
Inachidae is a family of crabs, containing 39 genera:
Pachygrapsus is a genus of small shore crabs. Recent genetic data suggest this genus to be possibly polyphyletic.
Leucosiidae is a family of crabs containing three subfamilies and a number of genera incertae sedis:
Lachnopodus is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing the following species:
Micropanope is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing one exclusively fossil species and the following species:
Paraxanthias is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae, containing one exclusively fossil species and the following extant species:
Pilumnus is a genus of crabs, containing the following species:
Pisinae is a subfamily of crabs in the family Epialtidae, comprising the following genera:
The Panopeidae are a family containing 26 genera of morphologically similar crabs, often known as "mud crabs". Their centers of diversity are the Atlantic Ocean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Euryplacidae is a family of crabs in the superfamily Goneplacoidea which consists of 14 existing genera and 31 existing species and 8 fossil genera and 15 fossil species.
