Figure 006. Leptuca cumulanta

Alt Text: Composite photograph of the Leptuca cumulanta fiddler crab which includes several black & white images of different views of the crab, a color photograph, and a distribution map. Composite Image Description: Figure 6. Leptuca cumulanta (Crane, 1943). UNI 732. Collected: 30 July 2018, North Atlantic Ocean, Guyana, East Demerara, Pigeon Island (LBI), mud on canal and mangroves (6.81521, -58.06480). Space bar = 10mm. (A) Dorsal view. (B) Front view. (C) Inner cheliped. (D) Ocular view. (E) Ambulatory. (F) Color Photo. (G) Distribution Map (Finke 2024). Species Description: Small species (width < 16 mm). Carapace shiny, smooth and strongly convex but not cylindrical (Fig. 6A). Carapace length 64% width. Frontal region 26% carapace width (Fig. A,D). Eyestalks short and thick. Anterior lateral margins straight and parallel (Fig. 6A). Dactyl and pollex of cheliped about same length as manus (Fig. 6 B, C). Tubercles line gap, pollex lined fully with tubercles, serrate elevation near distal end. Fused tubercles forming larger tooth near mid-line of pollex. Proximal edge of dactyl with large tubercles. Tip of dactyl pointed down and over hanging pollex, gap large (Fig. 6B,C). Oblique ridge on inner cheliped for tubercle carina following front edge of carpal cavity (Fig. 6C). Walking legs without many setae (Fig. 6E). Merus width averages 43% length: female 49%, male 40%. Found in southern Caribbean and coast on South American south to the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (Fig. 6G). This may be an invasive species moving southward.