Uca ornata
Ornate Fiddler Crab
Type Description
Gelasimus ornatus Smith, S.I. (1870) Notes on American Crustacea. No. 1. Ocypodoidea. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science 2:113–176.
Taxonomy
Subfamily Ucinae → Supertribe Ucitae → Tribe Ucini → Genus Uca → Subgenus Acanthoplax Common Names
Synonyms, Alternate Spellings, & Name Forms (Chronology )
Gelasimus ornatus Uca (Acanthoplax) ornata Uca (Uca) ornata Uca ornata Uca pizarri Size
Very Large Carapace Breadth: 42.3 mm ± 5.14 (sd), 95% range: 32.2–52.3 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)
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 GBIF
Male Uca ornata waving (Leptuca beebei in background) 42 sec., 352 × 240, MP4
Male Uca ornata waving (Leptuca beebei in background) 1:23 min., 352 × 240, MP4
Male Uca ornata waving (Leptuca beebei in background) 1:04 min., 352 × 240, MP4
Male Uca ornata waving, despite missing his major cheliped 52 sec., 352 × 240, MP4
Male Uca ornata waving (Leptuca beebei in background) 6:15 min., 352 × 240, MP4
Barnwell & Szelistowski (1985) ,
Beinlich & von Hagen (2006) ,
Bott (1954) ,
Crane (1941) ,
Crane (1957) ,
Crane (1975) ,
Domínguez Alonso (2008) ,
Fransen et al. (1997) ,
Garth (1957) ,
Hendrickx (1995) ,
Hendrickx (1995) ,
Kingsley (1880) ,
Lemaitre & Alvarez León (1992) ,
Lockington (1877) ,
Low & Ng (2012) ,
Luque et al. (2015) ,
Luque et al. (2017) ,
Moscoso (2012) ,
Moscoso (2013) ,
Ng et al. (2008) ,
Portell et al. (2012) ,
Rathbun (1911) ,
Rathbun (1918) ,
Rosenberg (2000) ,
Rosenberg (2001) ,
Rosenberg (2002) ,
Rosenberg (2019) ,
Rosenberg (2020) ,
Shih et al. (2016) ,
Smith (1870) ,
Smith (1871) ,
Thurman et al. (2025) ,
von Hagen (1968) ,
von Hagen (1970) ,
von Hagen (1970) ,
von Prahl & Toro (1985)
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.
