''Minuca minax'', commonly known as the red‐jointed fiddler crab or brackish-water 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 ...

that is found in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

to 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 ...

. It is one of the most common macroinvertebrates in

salt marshes A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

in these states. It prefers areas of lower salinity than other fiddler crabs, and can be found in great numbers along the banks of tidal streams, even at distances greater than from the sea. ''Minuca minax'' was formerly in the genus ''

Uca 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 sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, whil ...

'', but in 2016 it was placed in the genus '' Minuca'', a former subgenus of ''Uca''.

Description

Like other fiddler crabs, ''Minuca minax'' males have one

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

that is significantly larger than the other, while females have two equal-sized smaller claws. The joints on the claws are red, a noticeable feature that is the origin of the common name "red‐jointed fiddler crab".

Reproduction

''Minuca minax'' breed for two weeks in the summer in a small round burrow dug by the male. The

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

are unable to survive in the lower-salinity

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

water preferred by adults, and the adults do not travel to the sea to release the larvae. As such, the larvae use ebb tides to travel to higher-salinity environments to develop before returning as adults.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4477840 Ocypodoidea Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1855