Uca insignis
Distinguished Fiddler Crab
Type Description
Acanthoplax insignis Milne Edwards, H. (1852) Observations sur les affinités zoologiques et la classification naturelle des crustacés. Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Zoologie (Série 3) 18:109–166.
Taxonomy
Subfamily Ucinae → Supertribe Ucitae → Tribe Ucini → Genus Uca → Subgenus Acanthoplax Common Names
Synonyms, Alternate Spellings, & Name Forms (Chronology )
Acanthoplax excellens Acanthoplax insignis Gelasimus (Acanthoplax) excellens Gelasimus armatus Gelasimus insignis Uca (Acanthoplax) insignis Uca (Uca) insignis Uca (Uca) maracoani insignis Uca insignis Uca maracoani insignis Uca sp. aff. U. ornata or U. insignis Size
Very Large Carapace Breadth: 37.4 mm ± 4.75 (sd), 95% range: 28.1–46.7 mm (Data )
Geographic Range
Eastern Pacific Realm: El Salvador to northern Peru
Purple fiddler crabs iNaturalist ; yellow circles with a question mark
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
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Altevogt (1957) ,
Altevogt (1969) ,
Altevogt (1969) ,
Altevogt (1972) ,
Altevogt (1978) ,
Beinlich & von Hagen (2006) ,
Bott (1954) ,
Bott (1973) ,
Cano (1889) ,
Chirichigno Fonseca (1970) ,
Crane (1941) ,
Crane (1944) ,
Crane (1947) ,
Crane (1957) ,
Crane (1967) ,
Crane (1975) ,
Domínguez Alonso (2008) ,
Garth (1957) ,
Gerstaecker (1856) ,
Guinot (1979) ,
Hendrickx (1995) ,
Hendrickx (1995) ,
Holthuis (1954) ,
Kameya et al. (1998) ,
Kingsley (1880) ,
Landstorfer & Schubart (2010) ,
Lemaitre & Alvarez León (1992) ,
Lockington (1877) ,
Low & Ng (2012) ,
Milne Edwards (1852) ,
Milne Edwards (1854) ,
Milne Edwards (1854) ,
Moscoso (2012) ,
Moscoso (2013) ,
Ng et al. (2008) ,
Oliveira (1939) ,
Peters (1955) ,
Porter (1913) ,
Porter (1917) ,
Pretzmann (1983) ,
Rathbun (1911) ,
Rathbun (1918) ,
Retamal (1981) ,
Rosenberg (2000) ,
Rosenberg (2001) ,
Rosenberg (2002) ,
Rosenberg (2019) ,
Rosenberg (2020) ,
Salmon et al. (1978) ,
Shih et al. (2016) ,
Smith (1870) ,
Smith (1871) ,
Thurman et al. (2025) ,
von Hagen (1968) ,
von Hagen (1969) ,
von Hagen (1970) ,
von Hagen (1970) ,
von Hagen (1976) ,
von Prahl (1981) ,
von Prahl (1982) ,
von Prahl & Toro (1985) ,
Young (1900)
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.
