Gecarcoidea

Gecarcoidea
Christmas Island red crab
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Gecarcinidae
Genus: Gecarcoidea
H. Milne-Edwards, 1837
Synonyms [1]
  • Pelocarcinus H. Milne-Edwards, 1853
  • Hylaeocarcinus Wood-Mason, 1873
  • Limnocarcinus De Man, 1879

Gecarcoidea is a genus of terrestrial crabs. The crabs live in forests but must come to the coast to breed. When it is dry in the summer the crabs are inactive, but when it is the wet season they are ready to migrate.

Two species are recognised:[1]

Image Name Common name Distribution
Gecarcoidea lalandii Andaman Islands purple crab the Indo-Pacific from the Andaman Islands and eastwards
Gecarcoidea natalis Christmas Island red crab Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  1. ^ a b Ng, Peter K. L.; Guinot, Danièle & Davie, Peter J. F. (2008-01-31). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-06-06 – via the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.