Dotilla intermedia (Flora and Fauna)
No brush of hair between bases of walking legs. Fourth segment of abdomen overlapping 5 with a thick brush of setae at its distal end in both sexes. Gastric and cardiac areas of carapace entire, not divided by a median longitudinal groove; transverse groove near posterior margin incomplete in the middle. No lobules isolated by grooves on gastric region. Adult male with a tooth below orbital angle and a strong compressed tubercles on inner and proximal aspect of cheliped carpus. Tympana on all segments of sternum.
Vernacular name: Soldier crab
These are related to the so-called bubbler crabs. As they feed, their mouthparts sieve through the sand, filtering out the food particles. When finished, it discards the left-over sand as a ball on the ground. After several minutes of feeding, the ground is littered with dozens of closely packd balls. These are air-breathers and when the tide comes in, they retreat into their burrows, block the opening and ride out the high tide in a small air bubble.
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Crustacea
Class Malacostraca
Order Decapoda Latreille, 1803
Infraorder Brachyura Linnaeus, 1758
Family Dotillidae Stimpson, 1858
Dotilla intermedia de Mann, 1888
Thailand, Singapore and Celebes.
Burrows, sandy beaches.