Mr Robert Perger

“ However, the consumption of land crabs has not been reported from tourist destinations along the Neotropical Pacific coast. As free-roaming domestic animals may be seen as a detriment to tourism ( [29] ) , populations of possible land crab predators/competitors such as pigs, cats, dogs and rats (see [5] ) tend to be more controlled than in areas with farmers or hunter-gatherers.
Because gecarcinid land crabs significantly influence tree recruitment by consuming seeds, propagules and seedlings, they are considered important ecosystem engineers (reviewed by [2] ) . ”

“ These observations demonstrate that human presence does not necessarily have a negative impact on land crabs, as suggested by [5] . The relationship between land crabs and humans might depend on the type of habitat, human settlement system and land use. ”

“ The presence/absence pattern of Johngarthiaplanata in continental mainland habitats roughly coincides with the replacement of the moist forests of Panama and Costa Rica by dry forests that extend from Nicaragua to Mexico (see [22] ) . The diversity of possible crab predators such as birds ( [23] ) and mammals ( [24] ) is lower in the Southern Pacific Dry forest ecoregion than in tropical rainforests of Central America. ”

“ Whether Johngarthiaplanata appears as well in non-urban areas along the Mexican Pacific coast remains unclear, however, the mainland establishment of such species might be facilitated close to or in urban areas where the lower diversity or/and abundance of possible predators/competitors is influenced by the presence of humans. ”

“ The present study encompasses the Pacific coast from Mexico to Colombia. Following [10] and [11] the Baja California peninsula is treated separately to the rest of Mexico, which is referred to throughout the text as “Mexican mainland” or “continental mainland” respectively. To investigate the mainland presence/absence patterns of Johngarthiaplanata I performed an Internet search via Google.com (search function “images”) and flickr.com. Flickr is an image hosting web site that is reported to host more than 6 billion photographs. ”

“ Robert Perger; individualCount: 2; sex: 1 male, 1 female; reproductiveCondition: egg-bearing female; behavior: running, agonistic display, pinching, producing bubbles in mouth area; Taxon: scientificName: Johngarthiaplanata Stimpson, 1860; namePublishedIn: Stimpson W (1860) Notes on North American Crustacea, in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, No II. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 7: 176–246.; order: Decapoda; family: Gecarcinidae ”