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Uca heteropleura

American Red Fiddler Crab

Uca heteropleura

Type Description

Gelasimus heteropleurus
Smith, S.I. (1870) Notes on American Crustacea. No. 1. Ocypodoidea. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science 2:113–176.

Information

Taxonomy
Subfamily UcinaeSupertribe UcitaeTribe UciniGenus UcaSubgenus Uca
Common Names
English: American Red Fiddler Crab
Synonyms, Alternate Spellings, & Name Forms (Chronology)
Gelasimus heteropleurus, Heteruca heteropleura, Uca (Uca) (Major) heteropleura, Uca (Uca) [major] heteropleura, Uca (Uca) heteropleura, Uca (Uca) major heteropleura, Uca heteropleura, Uca heteropleurus
Size
Medium Carapace Breadth: 13.9 mm ± 3.49 (sd), 95% range: 7.0–20.7 mm (Data)
Geographic Range
Eastern Pacific Realm: El Salvador to northern Peru
Purple fiddler crabs indicate locations where this species is found according to the scientific record; blue fiddler crabs surrounded by a dashed circle indicate the same but for larger, general regions; green fiddler crabs indicate “research grade” observations imported from iNaturalist; yellow circles with a question mark indicate questionable records of this species from the scientific record; and red circles with an x indicate false or mistaken records from the scientific record.
Range map data derived from: Crane (1975); von Prahl (1982)
Associated Field Guides
Pacific Coasts of Colombia, Ecuador, and Northern Peru
Pacific Coasts of Costa Rica and Panama
Pacific Coasts of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua
External Links
Encyclopedia of Life
Wikipedia
iNaturalist
NCBI Taxonomy Browser/Genbank
GBIF

Photos

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Video

Male Uca heteropleura waving
7 sec., 352 × 240, MP4
Male Uca heteropleura waving
1:03 min., 352 × 240, MP4

Art

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Heteruca hereopleura thumbnail
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References

Barnwell & Szelistowski (1985), Beinlich & von Hagen (2006), Bott (1954), Crane (1941), Crane (1947), Crane (1957), Crane (1975), Domínguez Alonso (2008), Hendrickx (1995), Hendrickx (1995), Holthuis (1954), Invemar et al. (2006), Kingsley (1880), Lazarus-Agudelo & Cantera-Kintz (2007), Lemaitre & Alvarez León (1992), Levinton et al. (1996), Lockington (1877), Moscoso (2012), Moscoso (2013), Ng et al. (2008), Oliveira (1939), Ortmann (1897), Pretzmann (1983), Rathbun (1918), Rosenberg (2000), Rosenberg (2001), Rosenberg (2002), Rosenberg (2019), Rosenberg (2020), Shih et al. (2016), Smith (1870), Smith (1871), Sturmbauer et al. (1996), Thurman et al. (2025), von Hagen (1962), von Hagen (1968), von Hagen (1970), von Prahl (1981), von Prahl (1982), von Prahl & Toro (1985)