Ocypode gaudichaudii

Ocypode gaudichaudii, also known as the painted ghost crab or cart driver crab, is a species of crab found on Pacific beaches from El Salvador to Chile as well as on the Galápagos Islands. The species was first described by Henri Milne-Edwards and Hippolyte Lucas in 1843.

Ocypode gaudichaudii
Scientific classification
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O. gaudichaudii
Binomial name
Ocypode gaudichaudii

They are red orange in colour with sandy dots across the back of the carapace.

The crabs deposit feed on vegetative matter, such as algae exposed by low tide, and dead plant and animal tissue both from ocean and terrestrial sources.[1]

In Peru, this crab is the host of the acanthocephalan parasite Neoandracantha peruensis.[2]

References

  1. Thomas J. Trott (1988). "Note on the foraging activities of the painted ghost crab Ocypode gaudichaudii H. Milne Edwards & Lucas in Costa Rica (Decapoda, Brachyura)". Crustaceana. 55 (2): 217–219. doi:10.1163/156854088x00546. JSTOR 20104392.
  2. Amin, Omar M.; Heckmann, Richard A. (2017). "Neoandracantha peruensis n. gen. n. sp. (Acanthocephala, Polymorphidae) described from cystacanths infecting the ghost crab Ocypode gaudichaudii on the Peruvian coast". Parasite. 24: 40. doi:10.1051/parasite/2017038. PMC 5657191. PMID 29072573.

Further reading

  • Thomas J. Trott (January 1998). "On the sex ratio of the painted ghost crab Ocypode gaudichaudii H. Milne Edwards & Lucas, 1843 (Brachyura, Ocypodidae)". Crustaceana. 71 (1): 47–56. doi:10.1163/156854098x00761. JSTOR 20105955.


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