The fiddler crabs (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ocypodidae: genus Uca) of the South Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

The taxonomy of the 11 species of fiddler crabs [Uca (Uca) maracoani (Latreille, 1802-1803), U. (U.) tangeri (Eydoux, 1835), U. (Minuca) burgersi Holthuis, 1967, U. (M.) mordax (Smith, 1870), U. (M.) rapax (Smith, 1870), U. (M.) thayeri Rathbun, 1900, U. (M.) victoriana von Hagen, 1987, U. (M.) vocator (Herbst, 1804), U. (Leptuca) cumulanta Crane, 1943, U. (L.) leptodactyla Rathbun, 1898 and U. (L.) uruguayensis Nobili, 1901] of the South Atlantic Ocean is reviewed. Keys for identification, updating the keys for the Atlantic Ocean are proposed, including the species recently described. Comments reporting morphological variations among types and additional material and among populations of different localities are included. The Atlantic species are divided into three subgenera: Uca s. str., Minuca and Leptuca. The eastern Atlantic species U. (U.) tangeri is included in subgenus Uca s. str. due to the presence of a proximal spine opposing the spoon-tipped setae of the second maxilliped, which is considered an apomorphic character of the subgenus Uca s. str.