Brachyuran crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the remote oceanic Archipelago Trindade and Martin Vaz, South Atlantic Ocean
Author
In, First Published
text
Zootaxa
2022
2022-06-02
5146
1
129
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5146.1.1
11755334
7626155
52C3E5E3-80B6-49DB-BC9C-194560D491F7
Cronius ruber
(
Lamarck, 1818
)
(
Fig. 27C, F
)
Portunus ruber
Lamarck, 1818: 260
.
Trindade specimens.
1 juvenile
male (
MZUSP 40173
),
Brazil
, off
Espírito Santo
,
Trindade Island
,
Enseada dos Portugueses
,
20°30’17.7”S
,
29°18’56.7”W
,
J.B. Mendonça
coll.,
18.iv.2014
,
10.2 m
.
Size of largest male: cl
7 mm
, cw
10 mm
.
Comparative material examined.
Cronius ruber
:
Brazil
:
1 female
(
MZUSP 4243
),
São Sebastião
,
São Paulo
,
E. Garbe
coll.
, 1915.
Distribution.
Amphi-Atlantic. Western Atlantic: New Jersey, Virginia throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Antilles,
Colombia
,
Venezuela
, and
Brazil
(
Amapá
to
Rio Grande do Sul
) (
Rodriguez 1980
;
Lemaitre 1981
;
Williams 1984
;
Melo 1996
;
Felder
et al.
2009
).
Williams (1984)
cautioned that the record from New Jersey was based on a single male taken in 1974. This is the first record of
Cronius ruber
from Trindade. Eastern Atlantic: Madeira, Canary Islands (
González
et al.
2017
;
Schäfer
et al.
2019
;
Maggio
et al.
2021
),
Cape Verde
Islands,
Dakar
,
Senegal
(
Monod 1956
;
Manning & Holthuis 1981
;
Fransen 1991
).
Ecological notes.
Inhabits hard- (rocks, coralline reefs, rubbles, sublittoral caves) and soft bottoms (organogenic and, occasionally sandy bottoms, sand-seagrass meadow including
Thalassia testudinum
) between the tide mark to
105 m
(
Coelho & Ramos 1972
;
Heck 1977
;
González
et al.
2017
).
Cronius ruber
has been reported to use colonies of the bryozoan
Schizoporella unicornis
as a feeding site (Ales
et al.
2013); juveniles were found in association with the sponge
Amphimedon viridis
(see
Alves
et al.
2012c
). In Trindade,
C. ruber
was found in sandy bottom, close to rocks. A West African female was found to carry 474,400 eggs (
González
et al.
2017
). Ovigerous females are parasitized by
Sacculina
(
Rodríguez 1982
)
.
Freitas
et al.
(2017)
reported that the grouper
Epinephelus morio
(Valenciennes)
feeds more heavily on crustaceans, particularly on
C. ruber
in the Abrolhos Bank (
Bahia
,
Brazil
); the grouper
E. striatus
, the mutton snapper
Lutjanus analis
(Cuvier)
and
Octopus vulgaris
are also known to prey upon
C. ruber
(
Randall 1967
;
Anderson
et al.
2008
;
Begossi
et al
. 2012
).
thunborgii
Euphrasén, 1795
, and clarified that
P. ruber
should be conserved by reversal of precedence under Art. 23.9.1 of the
ICZN (1999: 27)
.
Manning & Holthuis (1981)
discussed the morphological differences between the west- and east Atlantic populations of
C. ruber
(
Fig. 27C, F
) and mentioned that the name
C. millerii
(A.
Milne-Edwards, 1867
)
is available for the west African population if, ultimately, it proves to be taxonomically distinct.