No photo available
Rust-spotted guard crab
Trapezia rufopunctata
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 210187, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Rust-spotted guard crab
- Scientific
- Trapezia rufopunctata
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Crabs
- Depth and habitat
- Sea floor (benthic), recorded from 0 to 30 m
- IUCN status
- NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)
Description
A coral guard crab with a pale shell covered in rust-red spots. It lives only in branching corals, mainly Pocillopora, where it defends the coral against crown-of-thorns starfish and other coral eaters, nipping their tube feet. In return it feeds on coral mucus and shelters among the branches.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=1); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=43, 23 observers); literature records via OBIS.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Trapezia-rufopunctata.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=210187
- inaturalist.org /taxa/469462
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Trapezia_rufopunctata,_Polinesia_2009_529.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.