Decapoda - Brachyura - Ocypodidae - Uca

Uca major (Herbst, 1782)


World Distribution
Crane (1975: 136) - Tropical western Atlantic, known with certainty from the West Indies, Panama, Venezuela, and French Guiana. Reported once from Mexico (Kingsley, 1880.1), but no material has been found and the record should probably be considered questionable. Occurrence in Brazil (Seba, 1758 and 1761) also unproved (see under type material). The range in the West Indies consists of the following localities: Chace & Hobbs (1969) listed the Bahamas (Bimini, San Salvador), Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Saint Croix, and Guadeloupe; von Hagen (1970) added Haiti, on the basis of specimens he found in the Hamburg Museum, and Trinidad, where I also found the species to be present but rare

Environnement : Marine & Land - Substrat/Association : Soft bottom (mud or sand)

Vertical range : Intertidal - Min-Max observed: 0-1 m

Lesser Antilles data
Distribution: VGI (St Croix), ICA (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Trinidad), IOV (Aruba). Intertidal. WA.
Gelasimus grangeri Desbonne, in Desbonne & Schramm, 1867: 45, Guadeloupe [n°142, mâle; Guadeloupe 'au canal avec le G. vocans (=U. rapax), on le rencontre comme ce dernier sur les bords des palétuviers] - Accepted as Uca major (Herbst, 1782) in WoRMS (2016).
Uca heterochelos (Lamarck) - Rathbun, 1936: 388, Aruba [coll. P. Hummelinck, 1930] - Ocypoda heterochelos Lamarck, 1801 accepted as Uca major (Herbst, 1782) in WoRMS (2016).
Uca major - Chace & Hobbs, 1969: 213, St Croix, Guadeloupe. - Hagen, 1970: 224, Guadeloupe, Trinidad [Caribbean Uca groups; from littérature]. - Vaslet et al., 2013: 245, annex 3, Guadeloupe [from Bourgeois-Lebel 1982, not seen]. - Uca (Uca) major - Crane, 1975: 136, 139, St Croix, Guadeloupe, Trinidad.
Uca major - Martinique, Etang du Galion, March 2016, photos, R. Rolland des Grottes, Y. Buske, det. J. Poupin.

French Guiana and surroundings areas: Guiana, Suriname, Brazil (Amapà)
Gelasimus platydactylus Milne-Edwards, 1837: 51, French Guiana [Cayenne, type description]. — Milne-Edwards, 1852: 144, pl. 3, figs. 2, 2a, 2b, French Guiana [Cayenne]. Gelasimus platydactylus accepted as Uca major (Herbst, 1782) in WoRMS (2023).
Uca major – Crane, 1975: 139, French Guiana [Cayenne, in list of synonyms].
Distribution/Habitat – WA (occurence in Brazil uncertain, ?French Guiana as southern limit); Marine (littoral, mangrove).

Comment(s) on data
During Karubenthos 2012, U. vocator was found with U. rapax in mangroves, but not U. major as indicated by Desbonne (as G. grangeri). According to Crane (1975: 629, key) the front is narrow in this species but wide in U. vocator.

Gelasimus heterocheles Kingsley = G. platydactylus Milne Edwards – Young, 1900: 271, Cayenne [I have not found them in British Guiana].

References : PDF list, 214 pp (1.4 Mo)

This species in Worms Database