''Leptuca panacea'', commonly known as the Gulf sand fiddler crab or the Panacea sand fiddler, is a species of

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab can be one of the hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae. These crabs are well known for their extreme sexual dimorphism, where the male crabs have a major claw significantly l ...

native to coastal habitats along the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

from northwestern

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Taxonomy

This species is the sister species of the Atlantic sand fiddler crab, '' L. pugilator''. The ranges of the two species overlap in northwestern Florida, where they are known to hybridize. Before 2016, the species was known as ''Uca panacea''. In 2016, the subgenus ''

Leptuca ''Leptuca'' is a genus of fiddler crabs belonging to the family Ocypodidae. The species of this genus are found on the coasts of the Americas. Description They are small- to large-sized crabs with an adult carapace width of 5–25 mm in adu ...

'' was promoted to the genus level.

Description

The large claw of the male is smooth, lacking any tuberculate ridges. The inner margin of the carapace is bright orange to orangish-red.

Habitat

The species lives in salt marshes or open sand flats on sand or sandy-mud substrata.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107086607 Ocypodoidea Crustaceans described in 1974