Echinoecus pentagonus

Echinoecus pentagonus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Infraorder: Brachyura
Superfamily: Pilumnoidea
Family: Pilumnidae
Genus: Echinoecus
Species: E. pentagonus
Binomial name
Echinoecus pentagonus
(A. Milne-Edwards, 1879) [1]

The "sea urchin crab" Echinoecus pentagonus is a species of crab in the family Pilumnidae found from the Red Sea and East Africa to French Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands.[2] This crab is a parasite that lives in the rectum of a sea urchin. In Hawaii, it chooses only Echinothrix calamaris, leaving few of these urchins unpopulated. Its curved and pointed carapace reaches only 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) in width.[3]

Taxonomic synonyms of E. pentagonus include:[4]

References

  1. 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: 138.
  2. "Echinoecus pentagonus (Milne-Edwards, 1879)". SeaLifeBase. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  3. John P. Hoover (2007). Hawaiian Sea Creatures. Mutual Publishing. ISBN 1-56647-220-2.
  4. P. Davie (2010). "Echinoecus pentagonus". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved December 22, 2010.


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