Geosesarma is genus of small freshwater or terrestrial crabs, typically less than 10 mm (0.4 in) across the carapace.[2] They live and reproduce on land with the larval stages inside the egg. They are found from India,[3] through Southeast Asia, to the Solomon Islands and Hawaii.[2]

Geosesarma
Geosesarma aurantium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Sesarmidae
Genus: Geosesarma
De Man, 1892
Type species
Sesarma noduliferum [1]
de Man, 1892

In the pet trade, they are sometimes called vampire crabs. This has nothing to do with their feeding habits, but rather with the bright, contrastingly yellow eyes of some Geosesarma species.[4]

Species edit

Geosesarma contains these species:[5]

As of March 2015, professor Peter Ng of National University of Singapore has named 20 Geosesarma species, and he "has another half a dozen or so newly collected Geosesarma species from Southeast Asia in his lab, and these species still need to be named and described."[4][7]

Threats edit

Geosesarma dennerle and Geosesarma hagen, both originally from Java, are threatened by illegal overcollection for the aquarium trade.[8]

References edit

  1. ^ Peter Davie (2012). "Geosesarma de Man, 1892". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Hartnoll, Richard G. (1998). "Evolution, systematics, and geographical distribution". In Warren W. Burggren; Brian R. McMahon (eds.). Biology of the Land Crabs. Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–54. ISBN 9780521306904.
  3. ^ Pati, S. K.; Dev Roy, M. K.; Sharma, R. M. "Freshwater crabs" (PDF). Checklist of Indian fauna. Zoological Survey of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 17, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Blaszczak-Boxe, Agata (March 19, 2015). "Mystery of the 'Vampire Crabs' Solved". livescience.com.
  5. ^ "Geosesarma". Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
  6. ^ Shy, Jhy-Yun; Ng, Peter K. L. (2019). "Geosesarma mirum, a new species of semi-terrestrial sesarmid crab (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura) from central Taiwan". ZooKeys (858): 1–10. doi:10.3897/zookeys.858.35198. ISSN 1313-2989. PMC 6614171. PMID 31312087.
  7. ^ Blaszczak-Boxe, Agata (19 March 2015). "Mystery of the 'Vampire Crabs' Solved". LiveScience. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  8. ^ Mahbu, Amri (March 23, 2015). "New Species of Javan Vampire Crabs Face Potential Exploitation".

External links edit