Uca Leach, 1814

Shih, Hsi-Te, Ng, Peter K. L., Davie, Peter J. F., Schubart, Christoph D., Türkay, Michael, Naderloo, Reza, Jones, Diana & Liu, Min-Yun, 2016, Systematics of the family Ocypodidae Rafinesque, 1815 (Crustacea: Brachyura), based on phylogenetic relationships, with a reorganization of subfamily rankings and a review of the taxonomic status of Uca Leach, 1814, sensu lato and its subgenera, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 64, pp. 139-175 : 149

Uca Leach, 1814

( Fig. 6C–H )

Uca Leach, 1814: 430 . Type species: Uca una Leach, 1814 (= Cancer vocans major Herbst, 1782 ) by monotypy. Gender feminine.

Heteruca Bott, 1973b: 323 . Type species: Gelasimus heteropleurus Smith, 1870 , by original designation. Gender feminine.

Acanthoplax H. Milne Edwards, 1852: 151 . Type species: Acanthoplax insignis H. Milne Edwards, 1852 , by monotypy.

Eurycheles Rathbun, 1914: 126 . Type species: Uca monilifera Rathbun, 1914 , by monotypy. Gender masculine.

Diagnosis. Medium- to large-sized species (carapace width about 25–40 mm in adults); dorsal carapace surface without posterolateral striae; front relatively narrow; cornea round; eyestalks slender; eye on major side sometimes with distal style; orbital floor with spinous tubercle near inner corner; spoon-tipped setae of second maxilliped with proximal spine opposing spoon; adult male major cheliped extremely large; right- or left-handed, with deep finger (straight cutting margins <1/2 length of fingers, or with conspicuously deep dactylus and pollex), pollex with ventral carina, outer surface of major manus with large tubercles; both chelipeds small in female; pleonal locking mechanism absent. Confined to Atlantic and East Pacific coasts of Americas.

Species included:

1. Uca heteropleura ( Smith, 1870)

2. Uca insignis (H. Milne Edwards, 1852)

= Gelasimus (Acanthoplax) excellens Gerstaecker, 1856

= Gelasimus armatus Smith, 1870

3. Uca intermedia von Prahl & Toro, 1985

4. Uca major ( Herbst, 1782)

= Ocypoda heterochelos Lamarck, 1801

= Cancer uka Shaw & Nodder, 1803

= Uca una Leach, 1814

= Gelasimus platydactylus H. Milne Edwards, 1837 = Gelasimus grangeri Desbonne , in Desbonne & Schram, 1867

5. Uca maracoani ( Latreille, 1803)

6. Uca monilifera Rathbun, 1914

7. Uca ornata ( Smith, 1870)

= Uca pizarri von Hagen, 1968

8. Uca princeps ( Smith, 1870)

9. Uca stylifera (H. Milne Edwards, 1852)

= Gelasimus heterophthalmus Smith, 1870

Remarks. The description of the genus Uca by Seba (1758) was based on a picture of the type species, “ Cancer uka una, Brasiliensibus ”, which later authors considered to be Cancer vocans major Herbst, 1782 . However, Bott (1973a) realised that the species in the picture was not the American Uca major , but instead the East Atlantic “ U. major ” (= U. tangeri ). To avoid nomenclatural problems, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) officially ruled that the holotype of Gelasimus platydactylus would henceforth also be the neotype of Cancer vocans major ( Holthuis, 1979; ICZN, 1983). This maintained the name Uca major for the American species and Afruca tangeri for the East Atlantic species (see Rosenberg, 2001 for details).

Uca s. str. now includes nine NF species from both sides of the Americas ( Fig. 4 ). The major cheliped of several species has a conspicuously deep dactylus and pollex, e.g., U. insignis ( Fig. 6C ), U. maracoani ( Fig. 6D ), U. monilifera ( Crane, 1975: pl. 18E–H), and U. ornata ( Crane, 1975: pl. 21E–H), and the waving displays have been consequently modified as a result of the heavier chelae ( Crane, 1975).

Figures

Fig. 6. Photographs of some species of the genera Afruca and Uca s. str. A, B, A. tangeri (Spain); C, U. heteropleura (Panama); D, U. insignis (El Salvador); E, U. major (Bahamas); F, U. maracoani (Brazil); G, U. princeps (Peru); H, U. stylifera (Panama).

Fig. 4. The distribution of 11 genera of fiddler crabs, mainly based on Crane (1975) and the website (http://www.fiddlercrab.info/index. html; Rosenberg, 2014).