Calappa is a genus of crabs known commonly as box crabs or shame-faced crabs. The name box crab comes from their distinctly bulky carapace, and the name shame-faced is from anthropomorphising the way the crab's chelae (claws) fold up and cover its face, as if it were hiding its face in shame.[2]

Calappa
Temporal range: Paleogene - Recent
Calappa hepatica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Calappidae
Genus: Calappa
Weber, 1795 [1]
Species

41 extant species: see text

Species

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There are 43 extant species in the genus:[3]


Extinct species

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A further 18 species are known only from fossils.[4][5]

 
Fossil of Calappa species

Fossils of species within this genus can be found in sediment of Europe, United States, Mexico, Central America, Australia and Japan from Paleogene to recent (age range: 33.9 to 0.0 Ma).

References

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  1. ^ "Calappa Weber, 1795". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  2. ^ "The Japanese Shame-Faced Crab". Creature Feature. Western Australian Museum. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  3. ^ P. K. L. Ng; D. Guinot; P. J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
  4. ^ 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
  5. ^ Fossilworks
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  •   Media related to Calappa at Wikimedia Commons