Grapsoidea

Taxobox
name = Grapsoidea

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = Purple Shore Crab ("Hemigrapsus nudus": Varunidae)
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
subclassis = Eumalacostraca
superordo = Eucarida
ordo = Decapoda
subordo = Pleocyemata
infraordo = Brachyura
zoosectio = Eubrachyura
zoosubsectio = Thoracotremata
superfamilia = Grapsoidea
superfamilia_authority = Macleay, 1838
subdivision_ranks = Families
subdivision =
*Gecarcinidae

*Glyptograpsidae

*Grapsidae

*Plagusiidae

*Sesarmidae

*Varunidae and see text
synonyms =See text

Grapsoidea is a superfamily of crabs. They contain many taxa which are terrestrial (land-living), semi-terrestrial (taking to the sea only for reproduction) or limnic (living in freshwater). Another well-known member with a more conventional lifestyle is the Chinese Mitten Crab, "Eriocheir sinensis".

The delimitation of the Grapsidae and Plagusiidae is in need of revision; the last at least is not monophyletic. The same apparently holds true for several genera in the Sesarmidae. [Schubart "et al." (2002, 2003, 2006)]

The closest living relatives of the Grapsoidea are the Ocypodoidea. In fact, they seem to be paraphyletic with respect to each other and it seems warranted to merge the Ocypodoidea into the Grapsoidea. [Schubart "et al." (2006)]

Footnotes

References

* (2002): Glyptograpsidae, a new brachyuran family from Central America: larval and adult morphology, and a molecular phylogeny of the Grapsoidea. "J.Crustacean Biol." 22(1): 28-44. DOI:10.1651/0278-0372(2002)022 [0028:GANBFF] 2.0.CO;2 [http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1651%2F0278-0372(2002)022%5B0028%3AGANBFF%5D2.0.CO%3B2 HTML abstract]
* (2003): A new genus and species of tree-climbing crab (Crustacea: Brachyura: Sesarmidae) from Taiwan with notes on its ecology and larval morphology. "Raffles Bulletin of Zoology" 51(1): 49-59. [http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/51/51rbz049-059.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2006): Molecular phylogeny of grapsoid crabs (Decapoda, Brachyura) and allies based on two mitochondrial genes and a proposal for refraining from current superfamily classification. "Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research" 44(3): 193–199. doi|10.1111/j.1439-0469.2006.00354.x (HTML abstract)