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iNat·342944SuperfamilyAnimalia393 field observations
  1. Animals
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  4. ›Typical Crustaceans
  5. ›Malacostracans
  6. ›Decapods, Isopods, and allies
  7. ›Decapods and Krill
  8. ›Decapods
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  10. ›True Crabs
  11. ›Eubrachyuran Crabs
  12. ›Thoracotrematan Crabs
Coral Enveloped Crabs
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Coral Enveloped Crabs

Cryptochiroidea

Cryptochiridae is a family of crabs known commonly as gall crabs or coral gall crabs. They live inside dwellings in corals and cause the formation of galls in the coral structure. The family is currently placed in its own superfamily, Cryptochiroidea.

Gall crabs are sexually dimorphic, with males being much smaller than females. Contrary to females, most males are free-living and "visit" females for mating.

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1 branches of this superfamily, most-observed first

Coral Gall Crabs

familyCryptochiridae

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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In the stacks

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Every page naming Cryptochiroidea in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 342944.