Gecarcinus ruricola

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Gecarcinus ruricola
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Gecarcinidae
Genus: Gecarcinus
Species:
G. ruricola
Binomial name
Gecarcinus ruricola
Synonyms [2]
  • Cancer ruricolus Linnaeus, 1758
  • Ocypode tourlourou Latreille, 1803
  • Gecarcinus agricola Reichenbach, 1828
  • Ocypode rubra Fréminville, 1835

Gecarcinus ruricola is a

terrestrial crab. It is the most terrestrial of the Caribbean land crabs,[3] and is found from western Cuba across the Antilles as far east as Barbados. Common names for G. ruricola include the purple land crab,[1] black land crab,[3] red land crab,[4] and zombie crab.[5]

Description

Gecarcinus ruricola
A male G. ruricola

Four colour morphs exist within the species - black, red, yellow, and green.

microbes before the water is then reabsorbed.[7]

Distribution

G. ruricola is found across much of the

Dry Tortugas marks the northernmost limit of its island distribution, which extends across the Bahamas and Cuba, through the Greater and Lesser Antilles, to Barbados. Outlying populations exist on Curaçao, in the Swan Islands off Honduras, Half Moon Caye of Belize, and the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina off the Colombian coast.[3]

It can be found at great distances from the sea, and at high altitudes; it has been observed above 300 m (980 ft) on the island of Dominica, and at over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) on Jamaica.[3]

Life cycle

The

megalopa larvae, in sufficient numbers to turn roads red.[8] They move at speeds of 1–2 m/s (2.2–4.5 mph), or faster if startled.[9] For the next three years, the young crabs live in burrows inhabited by other crabs, and eat food brought back to the burrow by the older crab.[6]

After mating, mass migrations occur, with the females returning to the sea to release their fertilised eggs. A typical female carries around 85,000 eggs.[8]

Ecology

G. ruricola is an omnivorous scavenger,[6] feeding mostly on nitrogen-poor plant matter.[8]

The meat of G. ruricola is rich in

predators may include birds, although information is scarce. When confronted, they rear up and hold their open claws outwards in a defensive posture.[6]

Drosophila

Two Drosophila endobranchiae flies on the carapace of G. ruricola

G. ruricola is the

Mona Island, and named as Drosophila carcinophila by M. R. Wheeler.[11]

In 1967, a second species of fly,

Birgus latro.) D. endobranchia evolved from a group of species that breeds on fungi or bark, while D. carcinophila evolved from a group that breeds on cacti.[10]

The flies spend most of their lives on the crab, and are reluctant to leave. They do not need to flee predators, because the crabs they inhabit are fast animals and will flee:[7]

The flies … hardly move at all, are extremely reluctant in leaving their host crabs and are hard pushed to take flight. Although the flies are sluggish, the crabs on which they reside are anything but. Chasing after crabs through a pitch-black jungle (growing on a razor-sharp labyrinthine limestone ground), while trying to aspirate flies from their carapaces is not trivial. Obtaining large amounts of flies in this way is simply a nightmare.

The

pupate.[7]

Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus described the species in 1758 (the starting point for zoological nomenclature), noting the species' annual migrations from the forests to the coast (Habitat in America, sylvas vastissimis agminibus quotannis deserens littora maris petiturus: "lives in America; every year, an army marches out of the forests towards the sea").[12]

Philately

G. ruricola appeared on two African postage stamps for the International Year of the Ocean in 1998, under the name "mountain crab". These were a Tanzanian stamp worth TSh 500/= and a Ugandan stamp worth USh 250/=.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b "Gecarcinus ruricola". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
  3. ^
    doi:10.1651/C-2640.1
    .
  4. ^ "Red land crab Gecarcinus ruricola". Spectrum of Life. American Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  5. ^ M. Kettunen; P. Genovesi; S. Gollasch; S. Pagad; U. Starfinger; P. ten Brink; C. Shine (2008). Technical support to EU strategy on invasive species (IAS) - Assessment of the impacts of IAS in Europe and the EU (final module report for the European Commission) (PDF). Brussels, Belgium: Institute for European Environmental Policy. pp. 44 + annexes.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Why do we see Crabs in the Quill?" (PDF). St Eustatius: National and Marine Parks and Botanical Gardens Newsletter: 5. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-24. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
  7. ^
    PMID 18398468
    .
  8. ^
    doi:10.1651/S-2772.1
    .
  9. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00195.x
    .
  10. ^
    PMID 4530320
    .
  11. S2CID 15254577
    .
  12. ^ Carl Linnaeus (1758). "239. Cancer". Systema Naturae (10th ed.). Stockholm, Sweden: Laurentius Salvius. pp. 649–658.
  13. ^ Makoto Omori & Lipke B. Holthuis (2005). "Crustaceans on postage stamps from 1870 to and including 2002: revised article for our paper in 2000 and addendum" (PDF). Journal of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. 1: 1–39. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
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