Animalia > Arthropoda > Merostomata > Xiphosurida > Limulidae > Limulus > Limulus polyphemus

Limulus polyphemus (horseshoe crab; Atlantic horseshoe crab)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. Horseshoe crabs are most commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America. A main area of annual migration is Delaware Bay, although stray individuals are occasionally found in Europe.
View Wikipedia Record: Limulus polyphemus

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Limulus polyphemus

Attributes

Water Biome [1]  Coastal

Prey / Diet

Gemma gemma (amethyst gemclam)[2]
Ilyanassa obsoleta (eastern mudsnail)[2]
Mulinia lateralis (dwarf surfclam)[2]
Mya arenaria (Clam)[2]
Mytilus edulis (Blue mussel)[2]

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Bdelloura candida (Horseshoe crab leech)[7]
Bdelloura propinqua[7]
Bdelloura wheeleri[7]
Mesocoelium limuli <Unverified Name>[7]
Syncoelidium pellucidum[7]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Diet and food preferences of the adult horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus in Delaware Bay, New Jersey, USA, M. L. Botton, Marine Biology 81, 199-207 (1984)
♦ 3del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5Food and feeding of the declining rufa Red Knots at its major austral stopover: San Antonio Oeste, Río Negro, Argentina, Patricia M. González, Global Flyway Network: progress report for 2007 (2008), p. 22-26
♦ 6HISTORICAL DIET ANALYSIS OF LOGGERHEAD (CARETTA CARETTA) AND KEMP’S RIDLEY (LEPIDOCHELYS KEMPI) SEA TURTLES IN VIRGINIA, Erin E. Seney, A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Marine Science The College of William and Mary in Virginia (2003)
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0