FIDDLER CRABS OF THE WORLD

This is a major catalog of fiddler crab (Brachyura, Ocypodidae, genus Uca) biology, which brings together information from systematics, evolution, behavior, morphology, biogeography, and ecology.In her preface, the author suggests that this book will be of interest to workers in evolution, in comparative ethology, and to physiologists.Although I question its immediate usefulness to physiologists (other than for taxonomic checks), this volume will prove interesting primarily to systematists and evolutionary biologists, and secondarily to ethologists.The book is a massive one, 736 pages, and is set in the very readable Linotype Times Roman face.It is divided into two major sections.Part one, entitled "Systematics Section", comprises 58% of the volume.Part two, entitled "Toward an Evolutionary Synthesis", is divided into 7 chapters, viz.: ( 1) Zoogeography; (2) Ecology; (3) Structures and their Functions ; (4) Non-Social Activities; (5) Components of Social Behavior; (6) Territoriality, Functions of Combat and Display, and the Origins of Social Patterns; and (7) Speciation, Phylogeny, and Directions of Euolution.These chapters comprise 21% of the total volume.Complementing the text are 50 pages of plates which present black and white aspects of each species, including details of the male crab's major claw.These are referred to consistently throughout the text and in Appendix B: Keys to the members of the genus.The bibliography of 605 complete entries is current to 1972, and lists all but the most recent publications.About a dozen films of Uca behavior, available through the Encyclopedia Cinematographica, are listed as part of the bibliography.In part one, 62 species of fiddler crabs are organized into nine subgenera and are described in as much detail as is currently available.There are six major categories of information offered for each species and subspecies.The described Morphology includes a general species diagnosis covering the anatomical aspects of the carapace, major cheliped of the male, minor cheliped, ambulatory legs, male and female genital apparatus, and measurements of holotypes.The descriptions are divided into male and female sec-