Uca urvillei (H. Milne-Edwards, 1852)

Family: Ocypodidae

Zone: R. mucronata and C. tagal zones (Gillikin, 2000).

Habitat: Burrowing to about 50 cm depth.

Food: Detritus (Icely and Jones, 1978).

Ecological notes: Found lower on the shore in very muddy, organic sediments; more common in estuarine mangroves (Vannini and Valmori, 1981; Ruwa, 1997; Gillikin, 2000).

Distinguishing characteristics: A large sized, narrow fronted species; the only Uca in the area with a long row of tubercles on the floor of the orbit and with the dactylus of the major claw having a long, distinct groove covering most of its length; upper margin of major claw yellow-orange near the base of immobile finger, orange-red (carapace width about 3 cm).

Geographical range: From Somalia to Natal, Madagascar, the coast of Pakistan and western India (Vannini and Valmori, 1981)

References:

Cannicci, S., F. Dahdouh-Guebas and L. Montemagno, 1993. "Field Keys for Kenyan Mangrove Crabs." Museo Zoologico "La Specola", Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e Genetica dell'Università Degli Studi di Firenze, Via Romana 17, I-50125 Firenze, Italia.

Edney, E.B., 1961. "The water and heat relationships of fiddler crabs (Uca spp.)." Trans. roy. Soc. Afr. Vol. XXXVI, part 2, March 1961, p71-91.

Gillikin, D.P., 2000. Factors controlling the distribution of Kenyan brachyuran mangrove crabs: Salinity tolerance and ecophysiology of two Kenyan Neosarmatium species. M.Sc. Thesis, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.

Hartnoll, R.G., 1975. "The Grapsidae and Ocypodidae (Decapoda: Brachyura) of Tanzania." J. Zool. Lond. 177:305-328.

Icely, JD and DA Jones, 1978. Factors affecting the distribution of the genus Uca (Crustacea: Ocypodidae) on an East African Shore." Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science 6:315-325.

Macnae, W., 1968. "A General Account of the Fauna and Flora of Mangrove Swamps and Forests in the Indo-West-Pacific Region." Advanced Marine Biology 6:73-270.

Vannini, M. and P. Valmori, 1981. Researchers on the coast of Somalia. The shore and the dune of Sar Uanle. 31. Ocypodidae and Gecarcinidae (Crustacea Brachyura). Monitore Zoologico Italiano 14: 199-226.

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