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Xanthidae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Xanthidae
Xantho poressa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Superfamily: Xanthoidea
Family: Xanthidae
Macleay, 1838 [1]
Subfamilies

Xanthidae is a family of crabs known as gorilla crabs, mud crabs, pebble crabs or rubble crabs.[1] Xanthid crabs are often brightly coloured and are highly poisonous, containing toxins which are not destroyed by cooking and for which no antidote is known.[2][better source needed] The toxins are similar to the tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin produced by puffer fish, and may be produced by bacteria in the genus Vibrio living in symbiosis with the crabs, mostly V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus.[2][better source needed]

Classification

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Many species formerly included in the family Xanthidae have since been moved to new families. Despite this, Xanthidae is still the largest crab family in terms of species richness, contanining the following subfamilies and genera:[3]

Notes

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  1. ^ Provisionally placed in Euxanthinae, although its phylogenetic position is unstable.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Xanthidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. ^ a b Ria Tan (2008). "Xanthid crabs: Family Xanthidae". Wild Singapore. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  3. ^ Sammy De Grave; N. Dean Pentcheff; Shane T. Ahyong; et al. (2009). "A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 21: 1–109.
  4. ^ Jose Christopher E. Mendoza & Danièle Guinot (2011). "Revision of the genus Glyptoxanthus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879, and establishment of Glyptoxanthinae nov. subfam. (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Xanthidae)" (PDF excerpt). Zootaxa. 3015: 29–51.
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