Fiddler Crab

fiddler crab the name given to any of a large group of crabs of the family Ocypodidae, notably those of the genus Uca, which have one claw much larger than the other. Their habit of ‘sawing’ the large claw up and down in the air accounts for ‘fiddler’; and a bevy of these crabs standing on a river bank and sawing away like a small orchestra is a quaint sight.

The African fiddler crab, Uca tangeri, is familiar to the inhabitants of Cadiz. Large numbers of these crabs inhabit holes in mud banks near the salt pans in the vicinity. Fishermen remove the large claw from males and then return them to the water to grow another for next season. The claws, which are sold as bocas de la isla, contain particularly good meat.