Red cliff crab

Red cliff crab
Grapsus grapsus
Systematics
Subordination : Pleocyemata Partial order : Crab (Brachyura) Superfamily : Grapsoidea Family : Square crabs (Grapsidae) Genre : Grapsus Type : Red cliff crab
Scientific name
Grapsus grapsus
( Linnaeus , 1758)

The red cliff crab ( Grapsus grapsus ) is one of the most common species of crab found on the South American Pacific coast, including Mexico and Central America in the north. It is characteristic of the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific , where it is also called zayapa and can be found very numerous. But it can also be found in the Atlantic on the remote archipelago of Sankt-Peter-und-Sankt-Pauls-Felsen .

The young animals are colored black, while the adult specimens are characterized by a brown to reddish color. It feeds on algae and carcasses that wash up the sea. Until 1990, the red rock crab was assigned to the same species as Grapsus adscensionis , although the latter only occurs in the eastern Atlantic .

The writer John Steinbeck reported in his travel diary Logbook of Life (1951), fascinated by the richness of color and the speed of the red cliff crab. The main purpose of catching the agile animals is to use them in cliff fishing as bait for larger prey.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jackson, MH Galapagos. A Natural History (University of Calgary, 1997).
2. ^ Manning, R., Chace FA, "Decapod and Stomatopod Crustacea from Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 503 .

Web links

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