{{Short description|Genus of crabs}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Aus soldier Crab.jpg | image_caption = Light-blue soldier crab, ''Mictyris longicarpus'' <!--| image2 = Mictyris longicarpus.JPG | image2_caption = An aggregation of ''M. longicarpus'' on a mud flat--> | parent_authority = Dana, 1851 | taxon = Mictyris | authority = Latreille, 1806 | display_parents = 2 }}
'''''Mictyris''''' is a genus of brightly coloured crabs, placed in its own taxonomical family, the '''Mictyridae'''.<ref name="Ng">{{cite journal|journal=Raffles Bulletin of Zoology |year=2008 |volume=17 |pages=1–286 |title=Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world |author=Peter K. L. Ng |author2=Danièle Guinot |author3=Peter J. F. Davie |name-list-style=amp |url=http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/s17/s17rbz.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606061453/http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/s17/s17rbz.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-06 }}</ref> It inhabits the central Indo-West Pacific region. These crabs congregate on mud flats or beaches in groups of a few thousand, and filter sand or mud for microscopic organisms. They congregate during low tide, and bury themselves in the sand during high tide or whenever they are threatened. This is done in wet sand, and they dig in a corkscrew pattern, leaving many small round pellets of sand behind them.
==Species==
The genus contains eight species:<ref name="Ng"/><ref>{{cite WoRMS |author=Peter Davie |year=2010 |title=''Mictyris'' Latreille, 1806 |id=439492 |access-date=April 15, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Peter J. F. Davie |author2=Hsi-Te Shih |author3=Benny K. K. Chan |name-list-style=amp |year=2010 |chapter=A new species of ''Mictyris'' (Decapoda, Brachyura, Mictyridae) from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan |title=Studies on Brachyura: a Homage to Danièle Guinot |isbn=9789047424178 |pages=83–105 |url=http://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/31484/31484.pdf |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004170865.i-366.61|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206161223/https://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/31484/31484.pdf|archive-date=2019-12-06}}</ref><ref name="Unno">{{cite journal|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia |year=2011 |volume=94 |pages=45–54 |title=A new species of Mictyris (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Mictyridae) recorded from northern Australia Kimberley region to Cape York |author=Unno, J. |author2=Semeniuk, V.|name-list-style=amp |url=https://www.rswa.org.au/publications/Journal/94(1)/UnnoSemeniukpp.45-54.pdf}}</ref> {| class="wikitable" |- ! Image !! Scientific name !! Distribution |- |120px ||''Mictyris brevidactylus'' <small>Stimpson, 1858</small> || Japan, China (including the type location, Hong Kong), Taiwan, Singapore, and parts of Indonesia (Karakelong, Bawean and Ambon Island) |- | ||''Mictyris darwinensis'' <small>Unno & Semeniuk, 2011</small> || Australia(Kimberley to Cape York) |- | ||''Mictyris guinotae'' <small>Davie ''et al.'', 2010</small> || Ryukyu Islands of Japan |- | ||''Mictyris livingstonei'' <small>McNeill, 1926</small> ||Australia |- |120px ||''Mictyris longicarpus'' <small>Latreille, 1806</small> || Bay of Bengal to New Caledonia and Australia |- | ||''Mictyris occidentalis'' <small>Unno, 2008</small> || Australia(King Bay, Dampier Archipelago) |- |120px ||''Mictyris platycheles'' <small>H. Milne-Edwards, 1852</small> || Tasmania and Australia(Victoria to Queensland) |- | ||''Mictyris thailandensis'' <small>Davie, Wisespongpand & Shih, 2013</small> ||Thailand |- |}
The predictable behaviour of these crabs has led them to be used in experiments in a form of billiard ball computer.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jacob Aron |date=April 12, 2012 |title=Computers powered by swarms of crabs |publisher=New Scientist |url=https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/04/researchers-build-crab-powered.html |access-date=April 15, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120905003414/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/04/researchers-build-crab-powered.html|archive-date=2012-09-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Yukio-Pegio Gunji |author2=Yuta Nishiyama |author3=Andrew Adamatzky |author3-link=Andrew Adamatzky |name-list-style=amp |year=2011 |title=Robust soldier crab ball gate |journal=Complex Systems |volume=20 |page=2 |arxiv=1204.1749|bibcode=2012arXiv1204.1749G}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q1318121}} {{Portal bar|Crustaceans}}
Category:Ocypodoidea Category:Decapod genera Category:Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille
{{Ocypodoidea-stub}}