Geosesarma

{{Short description|Genus of crabs}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Lahad-Datu Sabah Mount-Silam-Red-Crab-Geosesarma-aurantium-02.jpg

| image_caption = Geosesarma aurantium

| taxon = Geosesarma

| authority = De Man, 1892

| type_species = Sesarma noduliferum {{Cite WoRMS |author=Peter Davie |year=2012 |title=Geosesarma de Man, 1892 |id=439837 |accessdate=November 8, 2012}}

| type_species_authority = de Man, 1892

}}

Geosesarma is genus of small freshwater or terrestrial crabs, typically less than {{convert|10|mm|1|abbr=on}} across the carapace.{{Cite book |last=Hartnoll |first=Richard G. |url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=RR09AAAAIAAJ|pg=PA35}} |title=Biology of the Land Crabs |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=9780521306904 |editor-last=Warren W. Burggren |pages=6–54 |chapter=Evolution, systematics, and geographical distribution |editor-last2=Brian R. McMahon}} They live and reproduce on land with the larval stages inside the egg. They are found from India,{{Cite web |last1=Pati |first1=S. K. |last2=Dev Roy |first2=M. K. |last3=Sharma |first3=R. M. |title=Freshwater crabs |url=http://zsi.gov.in/checklist/freshwater_crabs.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917025112/http://zsi.gov.in/checklist/freshwater_crabs.pdf |archive-date=September 17, 2013 |access-date=November 8, 2012 |website=Checklist of Indian fauna |publisher=Zoological Survey of India }} through Southeast Asia, to the Solomon Islands and Hawaii.

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.

Species

Geosesarma contains these species:{{Cite journal |last=Peter K. L. Ng |first=Daisy Wowor |date=2024 |title=Two new species of vampire crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Sesarmidae: Geosesarma De Man, 1892) from Java, Indonesia |url=https://doi.org/10.26107/RBZ-2024-0034 |journal=Raffles Bulletin of Zoology |volume=72 |pages=469–478}}{{cite GBIF |taxon=Geosesarma |id=2225760}}

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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."{{Cite web|url=https://www.livescience.com/50183-vampire-crabs-origins-java.html|title=Mystery of the 'Vampire Crabs' Solved|first=Agata|last=Blaszczak-Boxe|date=March 19, 2015|website=livescience.com}}{{Cite news |last=Blaszczak-Boxe |first=Agata |date=19 March 2015 |title=Mystery of the 'Vampire Crabs' Solved |language=en |work=LiveScience |url=https://www.livescience.com/50183-vampire-crabs-origins-java.html |access-date=2021-02-11}}

Threats

Geosesarma dennerle and Geosesarma hagen, both originally from Java, are threatened by illegal overcollection for the aquarium trade.{{Cite web |last=Mahbu |first=Amri |date=March 23, 2015 |title=New Species of Javan Vampire Crabs Face Potential Exploitation |url=http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2015/03/23/206652060/New-Species-of-Javan-Vampire-Crabs-Face-Potential-Exploitation}}

References