Crabs

Jongkar, Grinang (2022) Crabs. In: Life from headwaters to the coast SAMUNSAM Wilderness rediscovered. UNIMAS Publisher, Sarawak Forestry and Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kuching, Sarawak, pp. 9-19. ISBN 9789672298588

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Abstract

The decapod brachyurans are species rich (6,793 species in 1,271 genera and 93 families) of the world’s decapod brachyurans (Ng et al., 2008), and many species are of commercial value. There have been relatively few documentations of the group in the coastal waters of Sarawak, compared to their freshwater cousins (see Grinang, 2016). The earliest collection of marine brachyurans was made by Michael Wilmer Forbes Tweedie (then the Director of Raffles Museum in Singapore) in December 1948, from mangrove and nipah habitats around what is today Jalan Satok, Kuching. He recorded 13 species and described a new genus and three new species from this small collection (Tweedie, 1950). Voucher specimens including the holotypes were deposited in the Raffles Museum (presently Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Singapore). Over half a century later, Elizabeth C. Ashton conducted a community ecological study at the Sematan mangroves, focusing on invertebrates, among which were 31 species of crabs (Ashton et al., 2003). Voucher specimens from the collection are presently housed in the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre. Another collection was made at the Sematan mangroves in 2015 by Lou Wei Cheong, for feeding experiments, of which 13 genera were recorded (Lou, 2016). The last significant collection was that of Ikhwanuddin (2011), who studied the biology of two mangrove species (Scylla olivacea and S. tranquebarica) from the Sematan mangroves.

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