Austruca mjoebergi

Austruca mjoebergi is a species of fiddler crab discovered by and named after the Swedish zoologist Eric Mjöberg (1882–1938), member of a Swedish scientific expedition to Australia in the early 1900s.

Austruca mjoebergi
Austruca mjoebergi, banana fiddler crab, Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Pleocyemata
Infraorder:	Brachyura
Family:	Ocypodidae
Subfamily:	Gelasiminae
Tribe:	Gelasimni
Genus:	Austruca
Species:	A. mjoebergi
Binomial name
Austruca mjoebergi (Rathbun, 1924)[1]

The crab is found along the north and northwest coast of Australia (approximately from Dampier to the Gulf of Carpentaria and on Papua New Guinea's northwest coast).^[2]

Austruca mjoebergi was formerly in the genus Uca, but in 2016 it was placed in the genus Austruca, a former subgenus of Uca.^[3][4][5]

Claw bluffing

Male Austruca mjoebergi rely heavily on their enlarged claw to signal dominance and fighting prowess. Crabs which lose their large claw will occasionally regenerate a lighter, cheaper claw (requiring less energy to produce). Research has shown that, while crabs with these 'cheap' claws are worse fighters than crabs with strong claws of a similar size, they are just as effective at intimidating other crabs based on claw size alone.^[6][7]