Mictyris longicarpus

Soldier Crab
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Pleocyemata
Infraorder:	Brachyura
Family:	Mictyridae
Genus:	Mictyris
Species:	M. longicarpus
Binomial name
	Mictyris longicarpus; Latreille, 1806

Mictyris longicarpus, the light-blue soldier crab, is a species of crab that lives on sandy beaches from the Bay of Bengal to Australia; with other members of the genus Mictyris, it is "one of the most loved crabs in Australia".^[2] Adults are 25 mm (1 in) across, white, with blue on their backs, and hold their claws vertically. They feed on detritus in the sand, leaving rounded pellets of discarded sand behind them. The males may form into large "armies" which traverse the beach at low tide, before the crabs dig into the sand to wait for the next low tide.

^ Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot & Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
^ Gary C. B. Poore & Shane T. Ahyong (2004). "Mictyridae Dana, 1851". Marine decapod Crustacea of southern Australia: a guide to identification. CSIRO Publishing. pp. 487–489. ISBN 978-0-643-06906-0.

[Ng-1] Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot & Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.

[Poore-2] Gary C. B. Poore & Shane T. Ahyong (2004). "Mictyridae Dana, 1851". Marine decapod Crustacea of southern Australia: a guide to identification. CSIRO Publishing. pp. 487–489. ISBN 978-0-643-06906-0.

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