Crabs—those sometimes pesky, hard-shelled beachcombers—are a highly diverse animal, with some 7,000 species found in oceans, lakes, and on land, varying in size from the diminutive pea crab (millimeters) to the giant 4-m wide Japanese spider crab. Tsang et al. (2014) have constructed the most complete and extensive data set to date. Their recalibrated crab gene tree using DNA and mitochondrial ...

the distribution, body size, and egg diameter and volume of ovigerous blue swimming crabs, portunus pelagicus , were examined according to habitat type and egg color in lasongko bay, central buton, indonesia between april 2013 and march 2014. ovigerous female crabs were sampled using gillnets and traps at seven stations. based on the results, the ovigerous female crabs with yellow to dark gray ...

and highly successful decapod group, their osmoregulatory capability has been studied mainly from the whole-animal perspective, and little information is available concerning their physiological mechanisms of osmotic and ionic regulation. Like the diadromous crabs that migrate between sea water and fresh water during their life cycle, the hololimnetic Brachyura also maintain large, outwardly di...

True crabs (Brachyura) are the most successful group of decapod crustaceans. This success is most likely coupled to their life history, including two specialised larval forms, zoea and megalopa. The group is comparably young, starting to diversify only about 100 million years ago (mya), with a dramatic increase in species richness beginning approximately 50 mya. Early evolution of crabs is stil...

Infection of the freshwater Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis with hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (HPND) has been a major problem in the crab-cultivated Chinese Province of Jiangsu since 2015. To explore the etiology of HPND, meta-transcriptomic libraries of the hepatopancreata from crabs with and without HPND were constructed. Comparison analyses showed that there were no statistically...

reforestation is one of the philippines’ government efforts to restore and rehabilitate degraded mangrove ecosystems. although there is recovery of the ecosystem in terms of vegetation, the recovery of closely-linked faunal species in terms of community structure is still understudied. this research investigates the community structure of mangrove crabs under two different management schemes: p...

Arthropods have long been thought to respond to noxious stimuli by reflex reaction. One way of testing if this is true is to provide the animal with a way to avoid the stimulus but to vary the potential cost of avoidance. If avoidance varies with potential cost then a decision making process is evident and the behaviour is not a mere reflex. Here we examine the responses of hermit crabs to elec...

The effect of dehydration on the aerobic metabolism and endurance of sustained, terrestrial locomotion was determined for the ghost crab, Ocypode quadrata. The rate of evaporative water loss, measured as the percentage of decrease in body mass per hour, was influenced by ambient temperature (Ta). Increasing Ta from 240 C to 300 C (40%-50% relative humidity) increased the rate of water loss from...

Oxygen consumption (VOZ) was measured as hermit crabs (Coenobita compressus) walked at controlled velocities on a motor-driven treadmill inside a small respirometer. The crabs displayed an aerobic response to exercise with a rapid increase in VQ2 reaching a steady state in about 5-6 min followed by a rapid recovery. The highest VQ2 was four times the resting rate. V^ was directly dependent on t...

Between February and June 2010, 113 fiddler crabs Uca spinicarpa were collected from the Chuburna lagoon system on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, México. Of the 68 crabs gathered outside their burrows, 13 were infected with 25 cystacanths of Hexaglandula corynosoma (intensity of infection from 1 to 5) and the remaining 55 crabs were uninfected. The other 45 crabs were found inside...