Illegal bird-keeping and pet trade are some of the major threats to Neotropical birds. The aim of the present study was to detail aspects of the use and trade of wild Passeriformes as pets in an ecotonal zone of Caatinga-Cerrado domains in middlenorth of Brazil, a western subregion of northeastern (NE) Brazil which also is a road hub interconnecting this region to the Amazon and other Brazilian areas. Information on the use of avifauna was obtained through semistructured interviews with 61 bird-keepers or trappers and investigations in the municipal market of Floriano, Piauí State. Our results reveal that at least 39 passerine species are targeted as pets in surveyed areas. Based on Use-Value (UV) index, the main recorded species were Sporophila lineola, Charitospiza eucosma, Sporophila nigricollis, Sporophila plumbea, Paroaria dominicana, Sicalis flaveola, Gnorimopsar chopi, Sicalis columbiana, Mimus saturninus, and Turdus rufiventris. In general, younger respondents (<30 years old) trapping more species than older persons (!50 years old), as well as trappers engaged in wild pet trade explored a higher species richness by respondents. The regional bird market chain was typically performed outside municipal market of Floriano and facilitated by popularization of technological improvements (motorcycles, smartphones, and social media). New strategies urgently need to be developed to improve bird conservation, including establishment and maintenance of environmental education programs, media campaigns and development of a well-monitored system for captive breeding, and reproduction of wild birds exploited as pets.

The relative growth of the fiddler crab Uca cumulanta was studied, primarily to determine the size at the onset of sexual maturity for a mangrove population in the estuary of the Patitiba River, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. The evaluation of the morphological sexual maturity of U. cumulanta was performed using the allometric technique. The relationships that most precisely indicated the size at onset of sexual maturity were carapace length (CL) vs propodus length for males and CL vs abdomen width for females. Males and females are mature at 5.25 and 4.75 mm CL, respectively. The remarkable ontogenetic changes observed in the allometric growth of the male major cheliped and the female abdomen, indicate that growth of these structures is closely connected to the timing of sexual maturity. The relative size at onset maturity obtained for this species was 0.68 and this index was compared to that seen in other species in the genus.

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Beurlenia araripensis Martins-Neto and Mezzalira, 1991 (Decapoda: Caridea) and Paleomattea deliciosa Maisey and Carvalho, 1995 (Decapoda: Penaeoidea) are reviser baseated upon new and better preserved samples. The new specimens were found in the Santana Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil, respectively in the Crato and Romualdo members. B. araripensis is represented by a well preserved specimen, where is possible to see a cephalothorax with antennal and branchiostegal spines, rostrum with 14 dorsal spines, and telson with posterior spines. This material permits a better characterization of the species' morphology and its placement in Palaemonidae. The Dendrobranchiata material of P. deliciosa, found in the bituminous shale of Romualdo Member, is for the fi rst time recorded in clusters of fragmentary parts that suggest mass mortality and morphologies that point to a planktonic lifestyle, as occurs with extant forms of sergestids.

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A new species of freshwater crab, Kingsleya parnaiba n. sp., collected in a tributary stream of the Parnaíba River Basin in Brazil, is described and illustrated. Kingsleya parnaiba n. sp. morphologically resembles Kingsleya attenboroughi Pinheiro and Santana, 2016 and Kingsleya gustavoi Magalhães, 2005, from which it can be separated by a set of characters of the first gonopod, chelipeds, and female abdomen.

We determined the infestation rate of Probopyrus sp. in populations of Palaemon pandaliformis (Stimpson, 1871) and P. northropi (Rankin, 1898) in the Ubatumirim River, localized in a mangrove ecosystem on Ubatumirim Beach, northern coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Samplings were carried out monthly from April 2003 to March 2004. Monthly prevalence varied from 0 to 4.94 % for P. pandaliformis, and from 0 to 4.54 % for P. northropi. This is the first record of Probopyrus sp. infesting the studied species in this region. Species of Probopyrus (Giard and Bonnier, 1888) seem to have a high plasticity with regard to palaemonid hosts, as they can be parasites of shrimps in both Palaemon (Fabricius, 1798) and Macrobrachium (Spence Bate, 1868). The linear relationships between the parasite and host sizes suggest that the parasite infests both hosts early in their development. We concluded that the infestation of Probopyrus sp. has little impact on Palaemon populations, mostly due to the low prevalence of infestation.

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