Potamoidea (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Potamoidea is a superfamily of freshwater crabs, comprising the two families Potamidae and Potamonautidae. Two previously recognised families, Deckeniidae and Platythelphusidae, are now treated as parts of the family Potamonautidae.There are around 1,300 species of freshwater crabs, distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, divided among eight families. They show direct development and maternal care of a small number of offspring, in contrast to marine crabs which release thousands of planktonic larvae. This limits the dispersal abilities of freshwater crabs, so they tend to be endemic to small areas. As a result, a large proportion are threatened with extinction.