Aspectos da reprodução do caranguejo guaiamum, Cardisoma guanhumi Latreille (Crustácea, Decapoda, Gecarcinidae) da Baía de Sepetiba, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The reproductive aspects of the "guaiamum" crabs, Cardisoma guallll!lllli Latreille (Crustacea, Decapoda, Gecarcinidae) at the Sepetiba Bay mangrove, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The objective of this work is to get knowledge about the "guaiamum" crabs reproduction. Two hundred and twenty four crabs were caught from August '96 to July'97. Their sex carapace color and morphometric data were obtained. The stages of gonadal development were macroscopically determined and the eggs diameter was measured. Three colors patters for the carapace for males, and four patters for females. Five stages of gonadal development were observed in female crabs, and two stages were observed for males. The first sexual maturity was estimated 53.0 mm carapace width for the females and 52,0 mm for the males. The ovigerous females occurred from March to May. The individual fecundity varied from 103.300 to 366.400 eggs. The eggs mean diameter was 0,39 mm. KEY WORDS . Decapoda, Gecarcinida, Cardiso/llC/ gllC/nhllmi, reproduction, land crabs, mangrove Cardisoma guanhumi Latreille, 1825 , vulgarmente denominado como guaiamum, guaiamu, caranguejo terrestre e grande, apresenta ampla distribuição geográfica, desde a Flórida, Bermudas, Golfo do México, América Central, Antilhas e Costa Atlântica da América do Sul (MELO 1996), sendo encontrado no Brasil do Ceará até Santa Catarina (BRANCO 1991).Esse caran~uejo possuindo uma alta percentagem de carne é muito apreciado na alimentação. E encontrado freqüentemente sendo comercializado em feiras, mercados ou em beiras de estradas próximas a manguezais, ou sendo utilizado na culinária em pratos típicos e de frutos do mar (OSHIRO et aI. 1999).Apesar da sua importância econômica com elevado preço no mercado em relação aos demais braquiúros, de sua ampla distribuição geográfica e de ser, segundo SOUZA (1987), provavelmente, a referência mais antiga da família Gecarcinidae, sua bioecologia foi pouco estudada. No Brasil, cita-se apenas o trabalho de OLIVEIRA (1946) efetuado na Baía de Guanabara (Rio de Janeiro). Também são raros os trabalhos que enfatizam a espécie individualmente, sendo o de bioecologia mais recente , realizado a 24 anos atrás na Venezuela por TAISSOUN (1974).Portanto, se fez necessário um estudo mais aprofundado desta espécie para obtenção de dados bioecológicos que possam ser utilizados para o controle do estoque natural, bem como viabilizar e estimul ar a prática de cultivo.

Population biology and color patterns of the blue land crab, Cardisoma guanhumi (Latreille 1828) (Crustacea: Gecarcinidae) in the Northeastern Brazil

“…This difference is generally more pronounced in aquatic brachyurans than in terrestrial or semi-terrestrial ones (Hartnoll, 1982;Gleenson, 1991). However, this has also been reported in various studies with C. guanhumi (Herreid, 1967;Bozada and Chávez, 1986;Silva and Oshiro, 2002;Rivera, 2005;Shinozaki-Mendes et al, 2008;Gil, 2009). In brachyurans, the larger size of males according to several authors (Warner, 1967;Benetti and Negreiros-Fransozo, 2003;Johnson, 2003;Luppi et al, 2004;Litulo, 2005) is the result of a longer period of somatic growth and a larger increase in size during molting.…”

“…Compared with other projects, in this study the species presented a late maturing of the gonads. Other authors found considerably lower values of CW 50 for females, ranging from 3.55 to 5.87 cm (Gimenez and Acevedo, 1991;Botelho et al, 2001;Silva and Oshiro, 2002;Shinozaki-Mendes, 2008;Gil, 2009). Only Taissoun (1974) found a larger value of CW 50 (7.00 cm) in Venezuela.…”

“…The individuals were classified as Juvenile (A -immature) or adults (B, C, D and E -mature), through a macroscopic analysis of the stages of gonad development (Botelho et al, 2001), based on its shape, size, consistence and coloration. This species presents three color patterns for males and four for females (Silva and Oshiro, 2002). The patterns are classified as follows: pattern 1 -characteristic for the juvenile stage, when the dorsal part of the carapace is a yellowish brown and the sides are a light purple, the chelipeds and legs also have an orange or yellowish brown color; pattern 2 -corresponds to the transition stage, when the animals' body has an intense bluish dark purple tone; pattern 3 -represents the individuals with color of the carapace, chelipeds and legs lavender blue; pattern 4 -is characterized by the whitish, yellowish or grayish color.…”

“…There are few published studies focusing on the population biology of the species C. guanhumi in Brazil (Botelho et al, 2001;Silva and Oshiro 2002;Botelho et al, 2009;Shinozaki-Mendes et al, 2012a, b) and these show that the species reaches larger amplitudes and medium size in Southeastern regions of Brazil. The largest size for the species in the Southeastern region is given because the species is not as appreciated in the regional cuisine in this region and because of factors related to the lower temperature and higher food availability, which act on the population structure of crustaceans (Hartnoll, 1982;Bond-Buckup and Buckup, 1989;Müller et al, 1999;Fischer et al, 2009a, b).…”

“…The lack of information about the species C. guanhumi is also reflected by the number of studies dedicated to classifying and quantitatively investigating the relationship of the carapace color patterns: there are just two published studies (Gifford, 1962;Silva and Oshiro, 2002). In semiterrestrial crabs, the color patterns are correlated to variations in behavior and physiology (Reid et al, 1997;Silbiger and Munguia, 2008).…”