1249 Siris Do Gênero Callinectes Stimpson, 1860 (Decapoda, Portunidae) Em Estuários Do Nordeste Paraense

Resumo

The swimming crabs of the genus Callinectes Stimpson, 1860 are economicallyexploitable crustaceans inside estuaries and sounds all over the American continent. Sampling for size and sex-ratio studies was made in the years from 2002 to 2004 in estuaries of Bragança, Salinópolis and Vigia counties, northeast Pará State. As abiotic parameters, water temperature and salinity were recorded and shown to vary about the 28 °C and 18 ‰ average values. After each sampling the swimming crabs were separated from the fish, shrimps and other organism, washed and stored in plastic recipients for them to be amenable to transportation over to the Crustacean Laboratory at the Institute for Research and Fish Resources Management in Northern Brazil (Cepnor/Ibama). Taking the sampled quantity as
an abundance index, out of a total 832 swimming crabs Callinectes bocourti contributed with 742 individuals, Callinectes danae with 76 and Callinectes ornatus with 14. As concerns spatial distribution, C. bocourti was more abundant in Vigia county, and C. danae and C. ornatus, in Salinópolis county, all of them being more available during the less rainy months. Males were numerically predominant in the three species. A specific classification by size runs as follows in a decreasing order: C. bocourti, C. danae and C. ornatus.