''Leptuca panacea'', commonly known as the Gulf sand fiddler crab or the Panacea sand fiddler, is a species of

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexual dimorphism, sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than th ...

native to coastal habitats along the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

from northwestern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Taxonomy

This species is the sister species of the Atlantic sand fiddler crab, '' L. pugilator''. The ranges of the two species overlap in northwestern Florida, where they are known to hybridize. Before 2016, the species was known as ''Uca panacea''. In 2016, the subgenus ''

Leptuca ''Leptuca'' is a genus of fiddler crabs belonging to the family Ocypodidae. The species of this genus are found on the coasts of the Americas. Description They are small- to large-sized crabs with an adult carapace width of 5–25 mm in adult ...

'' was promoted to the genus level.

Description

The large claw of the male is smooth, lacking any tuberculate ridges. The inner margin of the carapace is bright orange to orangish-red.

Habitat

The species lives in salt marshes or open sand flats on sand or sandy-mud substrata.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107086607 Ocypodoidea Crustaceans described in 1974