Terrestrial crab

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

Crabs that live primarily on land

title: "Terrestrial crab" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["crabs", "terrestrial-crustaceans", "arthropod-common-names"] description: "Crabs that live primarily on land" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_crab" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Crabs that live primarily on land ::

| name = Terrestrial crab | fossil_range = | image = Male Gecarcinus ruricola.jpg | image_caption = Purple land crab (Gecarcinus ruricola) | image2 = Sesarma reticulatum (YPM IZ 081221).jpeg | image2_caption = Purple marsh crab (Sesarma reticulatum) | auto = yes | parent = Eubrachyura | includes = * Gecarcinidae

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Johngarthia_lagostoma_yellow_crop.jpg" caption="''[[Johngarthia lagostoma]]'' ([[Gecarcinidae]]), a terrestrial crab found on [[Ascension Island]], where it is the largest native land animal"] ::

A number of lineages of crabs have evolved to live predominantly on land. Examples of terrestrial crabs are found in the families Gecarcinidae and Gecarcinucidae, as well as in selected genera from other families, such as Sesarma, although the term "land crab" is often used to mean solely the family Gecarcinidae.

Terrestriality and migration

No clear distinction is made between "terrestrial", "semiterrestrial", and "aquatic" crabs. Rather, a continuum of terrestriality is displayed among the true crabs, although most land-adapted crabs must still return to water to release their eggs. Some species of terrestrial crabs can be found many kilometres from the sea, but have to complete annual migrations to the sea. For example, following the Indian Ocean monsoon, the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis) migrates en masse, forming a "living carpet" of crabs. The crabs can travel up to 1.46 km in a day, and up to 4 km in total. Only a few land crabs, including certain Geosesarma species, have direct development (the mother carries the eggs until they have become tiny, fully developed crabs), and these do not need access to water to breed. Many crabs belonging to the family Potamidae, which contains mostly freshwater crabs, have developed a semiterrestrial (for instance the genus Nanhaipotamon) to terrestrial life history, and are sometimes independent of fresh water for reproduction (for instance the genus Tiwaripotamon).

Ecology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Make_way_for_land_crab.jpg" caption="Land crab warning road sign in [[Seychelles"] ::

Terrestrial crabs are often similar to freshwater crabs, since the physiological changes needed for living in fresh water are preadaptations for terrestrial living. On some oceanic islands, terrestrial crabs occupy the top of the energy pyramid.

References

References

  1. Richard G. Hartnoll. (1988). "Evolution, systematics, and geographical distribution". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  2. Warren W. Burggren & Brian Robert McMahon. (1988). "Biology of the Land Crabs". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  3. Colin Little. (1990). "The Terrestrial Invasion: an Ecophysiological Approach to the Origins of Land Animals". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  4. Ben Hoare. (2009). "Animal Migration: Remarkable Journeys in the Wild". [[University of California Press]].
  5. (1988). "Biology of the Land Crabs". Cambridge University Press.
  6. (1995). "''Geosesarma notophorum'' sp. nov. (Decapoda, Brachyura, Grapsidae, Sesarminae), a Terrestrial Crab from Sumatra, with Novel Brooding Behaviour". Crustaceana.
  7. (2018-12-20). "The freshwater crabs of Macau, with the description of a new species of Nanhaipotamon Bott, 1968 and the redescription of Nanhaipotamon wupingense Cheng, Yang, Zhong & Li, 2003 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Potamidae)". ZooKeys.
  8. "ZooBank.org".
  9. Michael Dobson. (2004). "Freshwater crabs in Africa". [[Freshwater Forum]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

crabsterrestrial-crustaceansarthropod-common-names