Back Mictyris longicarpus CEB Blaue Soldatenkrabbe German Mictyris longicarpus French Mictyris longicarpus Dutch Mictyris longicarpus Polish 长腕和尚蟹 Chinese
| Soldier Crab | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
| Infraorder: | Brachyura |
| Family: | Mictyridae |
| Genus: | Mictyris |
| Species: | M. longicarpus
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| Binomial name | |
| Mictyris longicarpus | |
"Army" of Mictyris longicarpus
Artist impression of Mictyris longicarpus marching across a mangrove flat
Mictyris longicarpus, the light-blue soldier crab, is a species of crab that lives on sandy beaches from the Bay of Bengal to Australia; with other members of the genus Mictyris, it is "one of the most loved crabs in Australia".[2] Adults are 25 mm (1 in) across, white, with blue on their backs, and hold their claws vertically. They feed on detritus in the sand, leaving rounded pellets of discarded sand behind them. The males may form into large "armies" which traverse the beach at low tide, before the crabs dig into the sand to wait for the next low tide.
- ^ Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot & Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
- ^ Gary C. B. Poore & Shane T. Ahyong (2004). "Mictyridae Dana, 1851". Marine decapod Crustacea of southern Australia: a guide to identification. CSIRO Publishing. pp. 487–489. ISBN 978-0-643-06906-0.