Calling Fiddler Crab
Gelasimus vocans
- Water temperature23–29 °C
- Best monthsJuly and August
- How commonRare
Photo credit: no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
About this species
Gelasimus vocans is a species of fiddler crab. It is found across the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea, Zanzibar and Madagascar to Indonesia and the central Pacific Ocean. It lives in burrows up to 50 centimetres (20 in) deep. Several forms of G. vocans have been recognised, with their authors often granting them the taxonomic rank of full species or subspecies.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Gelasimus vocans”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
Loading the map
Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 28 records
- February: 28 records
- March: 66 records
- April: 57 records
- May: 43 records
- June: 52 records
- July: 79 records
- August: 124 records
- September: 68 records
- October: 62 records
- November: 23 records
- December: 33 records
Depth and water temperature
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 23–29 °C
Photos
(c) Doreen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist 
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist 
(c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Pavel Smirnov, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Samuel Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Doreen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
Names and classification
- English
- Calling Fiddler Crab
Names in 4 more languages
- French
- Gélasime appelante (La)
- Japanese
- ヒメシオマネキ
- Thai
- ปูก้ามดาบก้ามแบน
- Simplified Chinese
- 呼喚丑招潮
Other scientific names: Cancer vocans, Gelasimus cultrimanus, Gelasimus marionis, Gelasimus nitidus, Uca (Gelasimus) vocans, Uca (Thalassuca) vocans, Uca marionis, Uca vocans
Similar species
Orange-clawed Fiddler CrabGelasimus vomeris
Dampier's Fiddler CrabGelasimus dampieri
Western Calling Fiddler CrabGelasimus hesperiae
Jocelyn's Fiddler CrabGelasimus jocelynae
Tetragonal Fiddler CrabGelasimus tetragonon
- Eastern Calling Fiddler Crab
Gelasimus excisus
Sources and credits
Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).
- Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
- Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 182 open-data records from 1823 to 2011.
- Species data updated November 2, 2026.
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