Johngarthia planata

Johngarthia planata, sometimes known as the Clipperton crab, is a bright orange species of land crab that lives on Clipperton Island in the eastern Pacific; on Malpelo Island, west of Colombia; and on Socorro Island in the Revillagigedo Islands off Mexico, 900 km north of Clipperton.[2] It is omnivorous and feeds on seaweed (algae), vegetation and sometimes carrion.

Johngarthia planata, photographed in the Ménagerie du Jardin des plantes, Paris, France

Johngarthia planata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Subphylum:
Crustacea
Class:
Malacostraca
Order:
Decapoda
Infraorder:
Brachyura
Superfamily:
Grapsoidea
Family:
Gecarcinidae
Genus:
Johngarthia
Species:
J. planata
Binomial name
Johngarthia planata
(Stimpson, 1860)
Synonyms [1]

Gecarcinus planatus Stimpson, 1860

The introduction of pigs on Clipperton Island by guano miners in the 1890s reduced the crab population: this in turn allowed grassland to gradually cover about 80 percent of the land surface.[3] The elimination of these pigs in 1958 — as the result of a personal project by Kenneth E. Stager[4] — has caused most of this vegetation to disappear, resulting in the return of millions of J. planata.[2] A 2005 report by the NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, USA indicates that the increased rat presence has led to a decline in the crab population, causing a corresponding increase in both vegetation and coconut palms. This report urgently recommended eradication of rats so that vegetation might be reduced and the island might return to its "pre-human" state.[4]

References
Notes
  1. Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot; Peter 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.
  2. Davie, P. (2015). Bieler R, Bouchet P, Gofas S, Marshall B, Rosenberg G, La Perna R, Neubauer TA, Sartori AF, Schneider S, Vos C, ter Poorten JJ, Taylor J, Dijkstra H, Finn J, Bank R, Neubert E, Moretzsohn F, Faber M, Houart R, Picton B, Garcia-Alvarez O (eds.). "Johngarthia planata (Stimpson, 1860)". MolluscaBase. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  3. Sachet, Marie-Hélène (1962). Geography and land ecology of Clipperton Island. Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council.
  4. Pitman, Robert L.; Lisa T. Ballance; Charly Bost (2005). "Clipperton Island: pig sty, rat hole and booby prize" (PDF). Marine Ornithology. 33 (2): 193–194.
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