''Tubuca flammula'', commonly known as the flame-backed fiddler crab 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 ...

that is found in the northwest of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, the northern part of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and the western half of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

''Tubuca flammula'' was formerly a member of the genus '' Uca'', but in 2016 it was placed in the genus '' Tubuca'', a former subgenus of ''Uca''.

Description

Like other fiddler crabs, ''Tubuca flammula'' males have one

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or Arthro ...

that is significantly larger than the other, while females have two equal-sized smaller claws. It has a black carapace with two white or pinkish parallel marks running fore and aft near the centre and a solid red band across the front of the carapace. The claws are bright red-orange and the eyes are close together.

References

Ocypodoidea Taxa named by Jocelyn Crane Crustaceans described in 1975 {{Ocypodoidea-stub