''Leptuca speciosa'', commonly known as the brilliant fiddler crab or the longfinger fiddler crab, 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 the southern United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Before 2016, the species was known as ''Uca speciosa''. 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 carapace can be up to 15mm wide. The large claw of the male is long and whitish, with the carpus lacking a distinct tubercle on the inner margin. Specimens from the Florida Keys are typically smaller than specimens from the northern Gulf.

Distribution

In the United States, the crabs are present along the coast of Florida and on the outer islands of Alabama and Mississippi. The crabs are also present on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, a few islands in the Bahamas, and the western tip of Cuba.

Habitat

The species lives in brackish water on silt or silty sand substrata in intertidal marshes or mangrove thickets.

Similar species

The range of the species rarely overlaps with the closely-related '' L. spinicarpa'', which frequents lower salinity habitat. Formerly, '' L. spinicarpa'' was described as a subspecies of ''L. speciosa''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107086612 Ocypodoidea Crustaceans described in 1891