UCA PUGNAX!
Who's that in the hole in the mud of the salt marsh in Wellfleet Mass?
And who's that in the shallow pool at low tide?
Who's congregating in the muddy water by the hundred?
Why it's the Atlantic salt marsh fiddler crab! (Scientific name: Uca pugnax) These adorable little scavengers were very abundant when my dad and I went walking by the shore on our recent visit to Cape Cod. Sexual selection by the female crabs has driven the evolution of one oversized claw on the males.