Sesarmide crabs

Slim, F.J., Hemminga, M.A., Ochieng, C., Jannink, N.T., Cocheret de la Moriniere, E., and van der Velde, G. (1997) Leaf litter removal by the snail Terebralia palustris (Linnaeus) and sesarmid crabs in an East African mangrove forest (Gazi Bay, Kenya). J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 215, 35—48. 

Field studies of leaf removal by sesarmide crabs in mangrove forests in Thailand have shown that the crabs can remove about 75% of the total daily litter fall and green, yellow as well as brown leaves were consumed (Fig. 1.12). It was estimated that the total population of sesarmide crabs could consume 58% of the total leaf litter per year, in this case 1130tons (Thongtham etal., 2003). A more detailed study of the economically important sesarmide crab... 

Fig. 1.12 Proportional consumption of Rhizophora apiculata leaves (green, yellow and brown leaves) by the sesarmide crab Neoepisesarma versicolor. Modified from Thongtham etal. (2003).

Kristensen, E. and Pilgaard, R. (2002) The role of fecal pellet deposition by leaf-eating sesarmid crabs on litter decomposition in a mangrove sediment (Phuket, Thailand), in Organisms—Sediment Interactions (eds J.Y. Aller, S.A. Woodin and R.C. Aller), University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, USA, pp. 369-384. 

Poovachiranon, S. and Tantichodok, P. (1991) The role of sesarmid crabs in the mineralization of leaf litter of Rhizophora apiculata in a mangrove, southern Thailand. Phuket Marine Biology Centre Research Bulletin, 56, 63—74. 

Thongtham, N., Kristensen, E. and Phungprasan, S.-Y. (2003) Leaf removal by leaf-eating sesarmid crabs in the Bangrong mangrove forest, Phuket, Thailand, with emphasis on the feeding ecology of Neoepisesarma versicolor (in preparation). 

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