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Occurrence of shell disease and carapace abnormalities on natural population of Neohelice granulata (Crustacea: Varunidae) from a tropical mangrove forest, Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

Rafael Augusto Gregati  and
Maria Lucia Negreiros-Fransozo
Rafael Augusto Gregati*
Affiliation:
NEBECC (Group of Studies on Crustacean Biology, Ecology and Culture), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) 18618-000, Botucatu, SP, Brazil
Maria Lucia Negreiros-Fransozo
Affiliation:
NEBECC (Group of Studies on Crustacean Biology, Ecology and Culture), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) 18618-000, Botucatu, SP, Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Rafael Augusto Gregati, NEBECC (Group of Studies on Crustacean Biology Ecology and Culture), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) 18618-000, Botucatu, SP, Brazil email: biogregati@hotmail.com

Abstract

In this note, we registered the occurrence of shell diseases and carapace abnormalities in a natural population of Neohelice granulata from a tropical mangrove forest, in South America, as a part of a wide ecological study. The occurrence of 32 adult crabs (1.77%) with black or brown spotted shells, or deformities on the carapace was registered, collected in the autumn and winter seasons. The low prevalence of shell diseases and abnormalities in this natural population is considered normal and probably caused by injuries occurring during the moult period of crabs.

Keywords

Neohelice granulatashell diseasecarapace abnormalities

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 2 , January 2009 , e60
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

INTRODUCTION

Shell diseases and external abnormalities or deformities are just one of the common problems affecting freshwater and marine crustaceans. These diseases have been reported in many natural crustacean populations, principally in many species of economic importance such as the Alaskan king crab, portunid crabs, shrimps and lobsters (Malloy, Reference Malloy1978; Sindermann, Reference Sindermann1989; Noga et al., Reference Noga, Smolowitz and Khoo2000).

The shell diseases are characterized by various types of erosive lesions on the carapace (Johnson, Reference Johnson and Provenzano1983; Sindermann & Lightner, Reference Sindermann and Lightner1988) and the classical and most common kind of shell disease is known as ‘brown spot’ or ‘black spot’, which consists of various-sized foci of hyperpigmentation (Rosen, Reference Rosen1970; Noga et al., Reference Noga, Smolowitz and Khoo2000). These diseases in crustaceans have been associated with many infectious agents. While fungi have been occasionally involved, the great majority of cases have been linked to many bacteria, primarily Vibrio (Sindermann, Reference Sindermann1989; Prince et al., Reference Prince, Bayer and Loughlin1993; Hameed, Reference Hameed1994; Abraham & Manley, Reference Abraham and Manley1995; Aguado & Bashirullah, Reference Aguado and Bashirullah1996).

External abnormalities or deformities in crustaceans are not rare and the most common problems are modifications on chelipeds (Morgan, Reference Morgan1923; Shuster Jr et al., Reference Shuster, Hulmer and Van Engel1963; Zou & Fingerman, Reference Zou and Fingerman2000; Benneti & Negreiros-Fransozo, Reference Benneti and Negreiros-Fransozo2003), carapace spines (Moncada & Gomes, Reference Moncada and Gomes1980), pereiopods (Lawler & Engel, Reference Lawler and Willard1973) and the abdomen form (Mantellato et al., Reference Mantellato, O'Brien and Alvarez2000). In these cases, these alterations could be attributed to genetic factors (Zou & Fingerman, Reference Zou and Fingerman2000) or accidents that occurred during the moulting process (Moncada & Gomes, Reference Moncada and Gomes1980).

The semi-terrestrial crab Neohelice granulata (Dana, 1851) (=Chasmagnathus granulata) is an important gregarious burrowing species in intertidal areas from tropical and subtropical estuaries, from South America. It occurs in the occidental Atlantic Ocean: Brazil (from Rio de Janeiro to Rio Grande do Sul States), Uruguay and Argentina (Melo, Reference Melo1996) and all information for this species are devoted to subtropical and salt marsh populations, without recent information about shell disease and external abnormalities.

The purpose of this note is to present information about the occurrence of shell diseases and abnormalities on a natural population of Neohelice granulata from a tropical mangrove forest in South America.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

From April 2003 to March 2004, the crabs were sampled monthly during low tide periods, in the mangrove of Jabaquara beach, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil (23°13′04″S 44°42′47″W), as part of a wide ecological study. Crabs were manually captured from their burrows or walking on the muddy bottom. We utilized the capture per unit effort, with two collectors simultaneously sampling in the same site for 15 minutes each, scanning an area of approximately 5 m2, at three points along the mangrove river margin.

Crabs were kept in plastic bags and refrigerated until they were analysed. In the laboratory, the sex of each crab was assessed by abdomen morphology observation (presence of gonopod in males or plumose pleopods in females). The carapace width (CW) of each specimen was measured with a digital caliper (0.01 mm).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A total of 1801 crabs was captured: 846 males, 732 females, 182 ovigerous females and 41 non-sexable individuals. The occurrence of 32 adult crabs (1.77%) with any type of shell disease (black/brown spotted shell) or deformities on the carapace was registered (Figure 1). These individuals were collected in autumn (April: six males and two females; May: one male and four females) and winter (July: one male and six females; August: four males and nine females). No ovigerous females were registered with carapace abnormalities or shell diseases. The mean size of these crabs was 26.52 ±7.4 mm CW (range: 15.5–34.4 mm CW).

Fig. 1.

Examples of shell disease and external abnormalities or deformities on Neohelice granulata natural population: (A&C) females with carapace abnormality; (B&D) males with modifications on carapace spines and black/brown spots; (E,F) female with external abnormality in the abdomen. Scale bars: 1 cm.

The shell diseases have been reported in many crustacean natural populations, although the prevalence, as in this case, has usually been very low (Noga et al., Reference Noga, Smolowitz and Khoo2000). High prevalence of shell disease has been associated with stressful environments, such as intensive aquaculture, impounded populations or polluted natural environments (Sindermann, Reference Sindermann1989; Prince et al., Reference Prince, Bayer and Loughlin1993; Ziskowski et al., Reference Ziskowski, Spallone, Kapareiko, Robohm, Calabrese and Pereira1996).

The pathogenesis of shell disease is thought to be multi-factorial and strongly influenced by mechanical damage (Cook & Lofton, Reference Cook and Lofton1973; Malloy, Reference Malloy1978; Young & Pearce, Reference Young and Pearce1975; Alderman, Reference Alderman1981; Sinderman, Reference Sindermann1989); carapace abnormalities are probably the result of injuries occurring during moulting (Moncada & Gomes, Reference Moncada and Gomes1980).

These carapace injuries could be caused by predator's attack; for example by migratory shorebirds (Iribarne & Martinez, Reference Iribarne and Martinez1995), or cannibalism, which occurs in this species (Luppi et al., Reference Luppi, Spivak and Anger2001). Neohelice granulata lives in dense groups, where juveniles live near conspecific adults in separate burrows, but usually juvenile and adult burrows are interconnected (Spivak et al., Reference Spivak, Anger, Luppi, Bas and Ismael1994). Probably, this gregarious habit can intensify these non-lethal injuries and posterior chitinoclastic activities of invading agents.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are indebted to FAPESP (#94/4878-8 and #98/3134-6) and CAPES (first author MSc fellowship), and are grateful for all help provided by NEBECC members. All the samplings were accomplished according to State and Federal laws concerning wild life.

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Figure 0

Fig. 1. Examples of shell disease and external abnormalities or deformities on Neohelice granulata natural population: (A&C) females with carapace abnormality; (B&D) males with modifications on carapace spines and black/brown spots; (E,F) female with external abnormality in the abdomen. Scale bars: 1 cm.