Puerto Rican sand crab

Taxobox
name = Puerto Rican sand crab


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image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
ordo = Decapoda
subordo = Pleocyemata
infraordo = Anomura
familia = Hippidae
genus = "Emerita"
species = "E. portoricensis"
binomial = "Emerita portoricensis"
binomial_authority = Schmitt, 1935

The Puerto Rican sand crab, "Emerita portoricensis", is a species of "sand crab" belonging to the genus "Emerita", which is native to the main island of Puerto Rico and its archipelago. The most detailed study conducted on the species was conducted by Sastre between 1988 and 1992. [cite web| author=Cedar García Ríos| date=2001| title=Las Playas de arena de Puerto Rico| url=http://cuhwww.upr.clu.edu/~cgarcia/ecologiacostanera/Clase/pla-doc/playa-2001.htm| accessdate=2007-05-14 |publisher=Universidad de Puerto Rico en Humacao |author=Cedar I. García Ríos & Alberto Cortés |year=2001 es icon] This investigation determined that the species has diotic traits and that there are size and survival differences between sexes. Both sexes reach sexual maturity three months after birth. At this age females are 7 mm (¼ in) in length; their maximum shell size is 19 mm (¾ in). The growing rate is slower in male specimens these being only 5 mm (frac|3|16 in) in length when they reach sexual maturity with a maximum shell size of 11 mm (½ in). In terms of reproductive aspects, females fecundity increases with their size, the males reproductive contribution decreases as they grow older. [cite journal |quotes=no |author=M. P. Sastre & P. M. Yoshioka |year=1992 |title=Sex-specific life history pattern of "Emerita portoricensis" (Schmitt) |journal=Bulletin of Marine Science |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=456–463]

ee also

*Fauna of Puerto Rico
*List of endemic fauna of Puerto Rico

References