The fiddler crabs, genus Uca Leach, 1814 (Decapoda, Ocypodidae) of Taiwan, including the offshore islands of Penghu (Pescadores), Kinmen (Quemoy), Matsu (Matzu), and Dongsha (Pratas), are revised, with the recognition of five subgenera and 15 species, viz. Uca (Austruca) Bott, 1973: U. lactea (De Haan, 1835), U. perplexa (H. Milne Edwards, 1837), U. triangularis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1873); U. (Gelasimus) Latreille, 1817: U. borealis Crane, 1975, U. jocelynae Shih, Naruse & Ng, 2010, U. tetragonon (Herbst, 1790), U. vocans (Linnaeus, 1758); U. (Paraleptuca) Bott, 1973: U. crassipes (White, 1847), U. splendida (Stimpson, 1858); U. (Tubuca) Bott, 1973: U. acuta (Stimpson 1858), U. arcuata (De Haan, 1835), U. coarctata (H. Milne Edwards, 1852), U. dussumieri (H. Milne Edwards, 1852), U. paradussumieri (Bott, 1973); and U. (Xeruca) Shih, 2015: U. formosensis Rathbun, 1921. Among them, U. acuta, U. paradussumieri, and U. vocans are confirmed to be distributed in Taiwan. Uca formosensis is endemic to Taiwan. The Uca species of the main islands of Japan are also listed. Four species (U. arcuata, U. lactea, U. crassipes and U. borealis) are known, but the recent additional records of U. perplexa and U. vocans need further confirmation. Except U. acuta, U. borealis, U. formosensis, U. lactea, and U. paradussumieri, other 10 Taiwanese species can be found from the Ryukyus too. Only one endemic species, U. boninensis, is reported from the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands. A key to the 18 species of Uca found in East Asia is also provided in this study.

Abstract. The sentinel crabs, Chaenostoma orientale Stimpson, 1858, and C. crassimanus Stimpson, 1858, were both described from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, and have both been long considered junior synonyms of C. boscii (Audouin, 1826). After examining specimens of the C. boscii species-complex from East Africa, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the Ryukyus, we now consider both C. crassimanus and C. orientale to be valid species, and C. lisae (Poupin & Bouchard, 2010) is found to be a synonym of C. crassimanus, based on the morphology of the carapace, male cheliped and male first gonopod, supported by molecular evidence from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences. Both C. orientale and C. crassimanus are found sympatrically in Taiwan (including Penghu), and possibly in the Ryukyus and New Caledonia. While C. boscii is endemic to the Red Sea, the distribution of C. sinuspersici is limited to the western Indian Ocean (East Africa and the Persian Gulf).

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A new species of sentinel crab (family Macrophthalmidae), Macrophthalmus (Mareotis) purpureocheir sp. nov., from coral reefs is herein described from southern and eastern Taiwan. The new species can be distinguished from other species by a suite of characters, including the narrower and more convex carapace, the first anterolateral tooth protruding forward, the short and stout chelipeds, and the male first gonopod with short apical process, as well as the distinctive reddish purple chelae of the male. The identity of this new species is also supported by molecular evidence using the mitochondrial 16S rDNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI). Three additional species of Macrophthalmus, viz. M. crinitus Rathbun, 1913, M. definitus Adams & White, 1849, and M. milloti Crosnier, 1965, as well as Ilyograpsus paludicola (Rathbun, 1909) of the subfamily Ilyograpsinae Števčić, 2005, are also confirmed from Taiwan.