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.
The family contains these genera:[1]
Cardisoma
Discoplax
Epigrapsus
Gecarcinus
Gecarcoidea
Johngarthia
Tuerkayana[2]
Mitochondrial genome sequencing indicates that members of the family (Gecarcoidia natalis and Cardisoma carnifex) are sister to the Sesarmidae.[3]
^ abPeter 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.
^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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2019.
^Zhang, Ying; Gao, Yan; Gong, Li; Lu, Xinting; Jiang, Lihua; Liu, Bingjian; Liu, Liqin; Lü, Zhenming; Li, Pengfei (2021-12-01). "Mitochondrial Genome of Episesarma lafondii (Brachyura: Sesarmidae) and Comparison with Other Sesarmid Crabs". Journal of Ocean University of China. 20 (6): 1545–1556. doi:10.1007/s11802-021-4779-z. ISSN 1993-5021.
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...
crab, or harlequin land crab, is a colourful land crab from the family Gecarcinidae. Gecarcinus quadratus is found in mangroves, sand dunes, and rainforests...
predominantly on land. Examples of terrestrial crabs are found in the families Gecarcinidae and Gecarcinucidae, as well as in selected genera from other families...
"Burrow Dynamics of the Red Land Crab Gecarcoidea Natalis (Brachyura, Gecarcinidae) in Rain Forest on Christmas Island (Indian Ocean)". Journal of Crustacean...
Stimpson, 1860 (Decapoda, Brachyura, Gecarcinidae) for Central America and biogeographic notes on East Pacific Gecarcinidae". Crustaceana. 86 (3): 268–277....
quadratus and Cardisoma spp.), is a colourful crab from the family Gecarcinidae. This species is found along the Atlantic coast from South Padre Island...
Island, Discoplax celeste, new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Gecarcinidae)" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 60 (1): 89–100. Peter K. L. Ng...
Decapoda (terrestrial hermit crabs, crabs of the families Ocypodidae, Gecarcinidae, and Grapsidae, and terrestrial crayfish). They are abundant in all marine...
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...
Johngarthia is a genus of crabs in the land crab family Gecarcinidae, formerly included in the genus Gecarcinus, and containing six species. The genus...
designated in 2012. In late 2018, a re-examination of the taxonomy of Gecarcinidae resulted in the creation of the genus Tuerkayana, which was created with...
land crab Gecarcinus ruricola (Linnaeus, 1758) (Brachyura: Grapsoidea: Gecarcinidae), and a description of the megalop". Zoological Journal of the Linnean...
a new family for Leptograpsodes Montgomery, 1931, and a new genus of Gecarcinidae H. Milne Edwards, 1837 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Grapsoidea MacLeay...
northern Australia and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. P. J. F. Davie (2002). "Gecarcinidae". Eucarida (Part 2), Decapoda: Anomura, Brachyura. Volume 19 of Zoological...
as the Christmas Island blue crab is a species of crab in the family Gecarcinidae. The species is only found near freshwater on Christmas Island. The species...
individuals from the Rocas Atoll are somewhat smaller. In the family Gecarcinidae, species are normally separated by the form of the first pleopod (gonopod)...
Stimpson, 1860 (Decapoda, Brachyura, Gecarcinidae) for Central America and biogeographic notes on East Pacific Gecarcinidae". Crustaceana. 86 (3): 268–277....
Ng, Peter K. L. “On a New Species of Epigrapsus (Decapoda, Brachyura, Gecarcinidae) from a Cave in Guam.” Crustaceana, vol. 75, no. 10, 2002, pp. 1219–1227...
Gecarcinucidae. Kani maranjandu is distinguished from other crabs of the family Gecarcinidae by its distinctive carapace and the structure of the male abdomen, as...
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