What is Fiddler crab?
{{Taxobox | image = Uca pugilator and hole crop.jpg | image_caption = ''Uca pugnax'' | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Arthropod]]a | subphylum = [[Crustacean|Crustacea]] | classis = Malacostraca | ordo = Decapoda | infraordo = [[Crab|Brachyura]] | familia = Ocypodidae | genus = '''''Uca''''' | genus_authority = William Elford Leach, 1814 }} A '''fiddler crab''', also called a '''calling crab''', is a land [[crab]] that lives in [[mud]] or [[sand]] flats near the [[beach]]. The reason this crab is called a fiddler crab is because it holds its large [[chela (organ)|cheliped]] in front of its body and moves it back and forth as if it is playing a [[violin|fiddle]].<ref name=olive>{{cite book | last = Fulbright| first = Jeannie K.| title = ''Exploring Creation with Zoology 2''| url = https://archive.org/details/exploringcreatio0000fulb| publisher = Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc| date = 2006| location = 1106 Meridian Plaza, Suite 220| isbn = 1-932012-73-7}}</ref> ==Description== The [[male]] fiddler crab has one huge cheliped and another smaller cheliped. Sometimes it's the right cheliped that's the big one and sometimes it's the left. If a male loses its large cheliped, the smaller one will grow large to replace it. This huge cheliped is so large that it is sometimes bigger than the whole crab. It is this cheliped they wave back and forth. ==Fiddler crab's diet== The fiddler crab eats by first opening its [[mouth]], then using its maxillipeds (a part of its mouth), it scoops in a small amount of mud or sand, depending on where it lives. Then, it uses its other mouthparts to scrape any food matter ([[algae]], decaying animals or plants)it can from the dirt it has just put into its mouth. After this, it forms the mud or sand into a little [[pellet]], which is called a ''feeding pellet''. It then drops the feeding pellet and starts all over again. == Mating == The reason the male fiddler crab has such a big claw is to attract [[Female|females]]. Every two weeks during the [[summer]], male fiddler crabs