Skip to content
Vinony
English
EnglishDeutschEspañolFrançaisItalianoNederlandsPolskiPortuguêsSvenskaTiếng ViệtTürkçeРусскийالعربيةไทย中文日本語
Gecarcinidae

Brösing, Andreas

EntityQ1803051· pop 26· linked from 36 articles

Gecarcinidae

Sign in to save

Gecarcinidae, or land crabs, are a family of true crabs that are adapted for terrestrial existence. Similar to all other crabs, land crabs possess a series of gills. In addition, the area of the carapace covering the gills is inflated and equipped with extra blood vessels. These organs extract oxygen from the air, analogous to the vertebrate lungs. These are called branchiostegal lungs. Adult land crabs are terrestrial, but visit the sea periodically, where they breed and their larvae develop. Land crabs are tropical omnivores which sometimes cause considerable damage to crops. Most land crabs

Species

land crabs

FAMILY

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumArthropoda
  3. ClassMalacostraca
  4. OrderDecapoda
  5. FamilyGecarcinidae
Habitatmarine, brackish
Observations recorded21,644

via GBIF

Museum specimens

Specimen records
254
With media
6
Family
Gecarcinidae
Collections
YPM, CAS, USNM
Recorded in
United Kingdom, Mexico, Antigua And Barbuda, Philippines, Japan, United States, Panama, Guatemala
iDigBio →

Wikidata facts

Instance of
taxon
Parent taxon
Grapsoidea
Image
Gecarcinus quadratus (Nosara).jpg
Show 6 more facts
Commons category
Gecarcinidae
taxon rank
family
taxon name
Gecarcinidae
topic's main category
Category:Gecarcinidae
taxon common name
Landkrabben
taxon author citation
MacLeay, 1838
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

2 sections
Contents
  • See also
  • References

Gecarcinidae, or land crabs, are a family of true crabs that are adapted for terrestrial existence. Similar to all other crabs, land crabs possess a series of gills. In addition, the area of the carapace covering the gills is inflated and equipped with extra blood vessels. These organs extract oxygen from the air, analogous to the vertebrate lungs. These are called branchiostegal lungs. Adult land crabs are terrestrial, but visit the sea periodically, where they breed and their larvae develop. Land crabs are tropical omnivores which sometimes cause considerable damage to crops. Most land crabs have one of their claws larger than the other.

The family contains these genera: Cardisoma Discoplax Epigrapsus Gecarcinus Gecarcoidea Johngarthia Tuerkayana

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gecarcinidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)

Available in 25 languages

Show 6 more

via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0