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Crustaceans of Zihuatanejo

SUBPHYLUM CRUSTACEA

-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Arthropods (Phylum Arthropoda)

-Crustaceans (Subphylum Crustacea)

-Typical Crustaceans (Superclass Multicrustacea)

-Malacostracans (Class Malacostraca)

-Decapods, Isopods, and Allies (Subclass Eumalacostraca)

-Decapods and Krill (Superorder Eucarida)

-Decapods (Order Decapoda)

-Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimps, and Allies (Suborder Pleocyemata)

-True Crabs (Infraorder Brachyura)​

-Eubrachyuran Crabs (Zoosection Eubrachyura)

-Thoracotrematan Crabs (Zoosubsection Thoracotremata)

-Land, Shore, and Marsh Crabs (Superfamily Grapsoidea)

-​Land Crabs (Family Gecarcinidae)

-Genus Gecarcinus

-Red Land Crab (Gecarcinus quadratus)


Red Land Crabs (Gecarcinus quadratus) are found in mangroves, sand dunes, and rainforests along the Eastern Pacific coast from Mexico south to Panama. Adults have a pair of largely purple claws, redish-orange legs, and a dark carapace with a pair of yellow, orangespots behind the eyes, and an additional pair of whitish spots on the central-lower carapace. It lives in the forest for much of its adult life, but will return to the ocean to breed. They are largely herbivorous, and consume leaf litter and young plants.

Red Land Crab

Gecarcinus quadratus

Diet

  • Omnivorous, feeding primarily on fallen leaves, fruits, seeds, flowers, fungi, and other plant material.

  • Also scavenges carrion and consumes insects, snails, worms, small crabs, and other invertebrates.

  • Plays an important ecological role by breaking down leaf litter and recycling nutrients in tropical coastal forests.

Range

  • Native to the tropical eastern Pacific, from southern Baja California and the Pacific coast of Mexico south through Central America to Colombia.

  • Widespread along the Pacific coast of Mexico, including the Zihuatanejo region of Guerrero.

  • Occurs from sea level to about 300 m (980 ft), generally remaining close to the coast.

Habitat

  • Inhabits tropical dry forests, tropical rainforests, mangrove forests, coastal scrub, and woodland bordering beaches, estuaries, and coastal lagoons.

  • Lives in deep burrows excavated in moist soil, often beneath tree roots, logs, or rocks.

  • Adults are almost entirely terrestrial but migrate in large numbers to the ocean during the breeding season, where females release larvae into the surf.

Size

  • Carapace width: 6–8 cm (2.4–3.1 in)

  • Leg span: Up to 20 cm (8 in)

  • Weight: Typically 100–250 g

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