Geosesarma is genus of small freshwater or terrestrial crabs, typically less than 10 mm (0.4 in) across the carapace.[2] They live and reproduce on land with the larval stages inside the egg. They are found from India,[3] through Southeast Asia, to the Solomon Islands and Hawaii.[2]
Geosesarma | |
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Geosesarma aurantium | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
Infraorder: | Brachyura |
Family: | Sesarmidae |
Genus: | Geosesarma De Man, 1892 |
Type species | |
Sesarma noduliferum [1] de Man, 1892
|
In the pet trade, they are sometimes called vampire crabs. This has nothing to do with their feeding habits, but rather with the bright, contrastingly yellow eyes of some Geosesarma species.[4]
Geosesarma contains these species:[1]
As of March 2015, professor Peter Ng of National University of Singapore has named 20 Geosesarma species, and he "has another half a dozen or so newly collected Geosesarma species from Southeast Asia in his lab, and these species still need to be named and described."[4][5]
Geosesarma dennerle and Geosesarma hagen, both originally from Java, are threatened by illegal overcollection for the aquarium trade.[6]