Relative growth, sexual maturity, and breeding season of three species of the genusPersephona(Decapoda: Brachyura: Leucosiidae): a comparative study

Abstract

The relative growths of Persephona lichtensteinii, P. mediterranea, and P. punctata were investigated on the south-eastern Brazilian coast, focusing on differences in the growth rates between immature and mature phases, the onset of morphological sexual maturity, and the breeding seasons of these species. Crabs were collected every two months from January 1991 through to November 1992, from a shrimp fishing boat equipped with two otter-trawl nets. Significant differences in the patterns of body growth were observed between immature and mature phases of all three species. Changes in the growth rates of the chelipeds (males) and abdomen (females) observed for P. lichtensteinii, P. mediterranea, and P. punctata, seem to be related to the puberty moult for both sexes. Males of P. mediterranea and P. punctata reached larger mean sizes of carapace width than females, whereas no difference was recorded for P. lichtensteinii. The body size at which 50% of males attained sexual maturity was also larger in P. mediterranea and P. punctata, and smaller in P. lichtensteinii. The absence of a pronounced sexual dimorphism and the size at the onset of sexual maturity observed only for P. lichtensteinii might be explained by distinct reproductive strategies of males. The presence of ovigerous females during the entire sampling period suggests that all three species have a continuous reproduction pattern at the Ubatuba region. Future studies on the population structure, functional maturity, and mating system should improve the understanding of factors driving the biology and ecology of these species at a subtropical region.

Environmental factors influencing the distribution of three species within the genus Persephona Leach, 1817 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Leucosiidae) in two regions on the northern coast of Sao Paulo State, Brazil

“…In general it was observed more individuals of P. mediterranea, followed by P. punctata and P. lichtensteinii, respectively. The same relation of abundance was observed by Bertini et al (2001) and Almeida et al (2013). This difference may be associated with the limits of the species distribution.…”

“…A comparative analysis of the distribution and sexual maturity of P. lichtensteinii and P. punctata in Ilhéus, Bahia State, was performed by Carvalho et al (2010). The relative growth, sexual maturity, and breeding season of three species of the genus Persephona were compared by Almeida et al (2013) in Ubatuba bay.…”

“…P. lichtensteinii, P. mediterranea and P. punctata might play an essential ecological role within the trophic web of benthic environments in which they are inserted (Almeida et al, 2013), the study of the species is fundamental to understand the species population dynamics and evaluate possible impacts of trawl fisheries on the communities of Brachyura, and thus establish mitigation activities for the species conservation. These actions are necessary, especially in areas such as southeastern coast of Brazil, where marine ecosystems are affected by intense and uncontrolled expansion of tourism (Mantelatto et al, 1995), which provides higher fishery exploration in order to feed the demand of organisms that serve as food to the human population.…”

Occurrence pattern and reproductive ecology of the leucosiid crab <i>Pyrhila pisum</i> (De Haan) in tidal flats in Hakata Bay, Fukuoka, Japan

“…However, there have been very few studies about the ecology of leucosiid species, probably because many species are small or rare, inhabit the subtidal area and are not economically important. There have been some descriptive studies about this family, on their taxonomy and larval development, but ecological ones are limited to Ebalia tuberosa (Pennant), which is distributed in the subtidal area of the northern Atlantic Ocean (Schembri, 1979(Schembri, , 1981a(Schembri, , b, 1982a(Schembri, , b, c, 1983, three Persephona species (P. lichtensteinii Leach, P. mediterranea Herbst, and P. punctate (Linnaeus)) that inhabit the south-eastern Brazilian coast (Almeida et al, 2013;Pereira et al, 2014), and brief reports on a few other species (Hale, 1926;Naidu, 1954).…”

Population structure of the swimming crab Achelous spinicarpus (Crustacea, Portunoidea) in São Paulo northern coast, Brazil

“…However, the absence of difference between the mean males and females sizes reveals that, for A. spinicarpus, size cannot be considered as an indication of sexual dimorphism. Such pattern is not common for Brachyura, since size difference has already been related in Southeastern Brazilian coast (Bertini et al, 2010b;Almeida et al, 2013;Silva et al, 2014;Andrade et al, 2015c). However, a different pattern was also observed by Ogawa and D'Incao (2010) for A. spinicarpus, who collected samples from 10 to 100 m in depth and described females with mean sizes larger than males.…”