Uca princeps
Greater Mexican Fiddler Crab
Type Description
Gelasimus princeps 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 Uca Common Names
Synonyms, Alternate Spellings, & Name Forms (Chronology )
Gelasimus princeps Uca (Uca) princeps Uca (Uca) princeps princeps Uca princeps Uca princeps princeps Size
Very Large Carapace Breadth: 35.4 mm ± 8.77 (sd), 95% range: 18.2–52.6 mm (Data )
Geographic Range
Eastern Pacific Realm: southern California (USA) to Peru
Purple fiddler crabs iNaturalist ; yellow circles with a question mark
Range map data derived from: Brusca (1980) ; Crane (1975) ; Hendrickx (1984) ; Rosenberg (2018)
Associated Field Guides
Pacific Coast of Guatemala Pacific Coast of Mexico Pacific Coasts of Colombia, Ecuador, and Northern Peru Pacific Coasts of Costa Rica and Panama Pacific Coasts of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua Pacific Coasts of Peru and Northern Chile Southern California, USA External Links
Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia iNaturalist NCBI Taxonomy Browser/Genbank GBIF
Altevogt (1957) ,
Altevogt (1969) ,
Altevogt (1969) ,
Altevogt (1972) ,
Alvarez del Castillo C. et al. (1992) ,
Arzola-González et al. (2010) ,
Backwell et al. (1998) ,
Barnwell (1968) ,
Barnwell & Stillman (1990) ,
Beinlich & von Hagen (2006) ,
Bott (1954) ,
Bott (1973) ,
Brusca (1973) ,
Brusca (1980) ,
Buitendijk (1950) ,
Burnett & Infantino (1984) ,
Campos & Lopez (1998) ,
Cano (1889) ,
Chavez & Cedillo (1999) ,
Chirichigno Fonseca (1970) ,
Crane (1941) ,
Crane (1944) ,
Crane (1947) ,
Crane (1957) ,
Crane (1975) ,
Domínguez Alonso (2008) ,
Félix-Pico et al. (2003) ,
García-Madrigal et al. (2022) ,
Garth (1957) ,
Garth (1960) ,
Gordillo et al. (2014) ,
Guinot (1979) ,
Hedgecock et al. (1982) ,
Hendrickx (1979) ,
Hendrickx (1984) ,
Hendrickx (1993) ,
Hendrickx (1995) ,
Hendrickx (1995) ,
Hendrickx (2005) ,
Hugie (2004) ,
Kameya et al. (1998) ,
Kerstitch (1989) ,
Kingsley (1880) ,
Lockington (1877) ,
Low & Ng (2012) ,
Maccagno (1928) ,
Maloney et al. (1989) ,
McMahon & Burggren (1988) ,
Moscoso (2012) ,
Moscoso (2013) ,
Nabout et al. (2010) ,
Nelson & Hedgecock (1980) ,
Ng et al. (2008) ,
Oliveira (1939) ,
Ortmann (1897) ,
Peters (1955) ,
Pretzmann (1983) ,
Rathbun (1911) ,
Rathbun (1918) ,
Rathbun (1924) ,
Rivera-Velázquez & Peralta-Meixueiro (2020) ,
Rosenberg (2000) ,
Rosenberg (2001) ,
Rosenberg (2002) ,
Rosenberg (2018) ,
Rosenberg (2019) ,
Rosenberg (2020) ,
Salmon & Horch (1972) ,
Salmon et al. (1978) ,
Saussure (1853) ,
Shih et al. (2016) ,
Smith (1870) ,
Smith (1871) ,
Sullivan & Tentori (1981) ,
Thurman et al. (2025) ,
Villalobos Hiriart et al. (1989) ,
von Hagen (1968) ,
von Hagen (1970) ,
von Hagen (1970) ,
von Martens (1872) ,
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.
