10 April 2019

Inversed Fiddler Crab – Al Qahma

Phil Roberts went looking for Collared Kingfisher whilst in the Jizan area recently and although he arrived before sunrise he was unsuccessful, but did find Inversed Fiddler Crab Uca inversa lnversa. Phil has kindly allowed me to use his photo on my website which is shown below. The littoral environments of the Red Sea are characterised by wide temperature fluctuations. Crabs are conspicuous members of mangrove ecosystems in Saudi Arabia which by behavioural and physiological means, are able to survive extreme environmental conditions. One is the Inversed Fiddler crab that ooccupy burrows where they can burrow to about 50 cm depth. They eat detritus sorted from sand and can survive in sediments with low organic matter and high salinity. Their claw is yellow-orange; broad front; mobile claw tip is forked and their carapace is about 2.5 cm wide. They occur from the Red Sea to Natal and Madagascar.
Inversed Fiddler Crab