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Tese de Doutorado Hirose, G. L., 2009
ABSTRACT:Among the crabs (Ebaliinae) found in Brazil, the genus Persephona is the
most representative. At the moment, 4 species were registered: Persephona crinita
Rathbun, 1931; P. lichtensteinii Leach, 1817; P. mediterranea (Herbst, 1794) and P.
punctata (Linnaeus, 1758). The literature provides many papers for the larvae of
Leucosioidea, but for the genus Persephona only one description was made at this
moment (P. mediterranea), and the others species still unknown about their larval
forms. The purpose of this paper is the description, redescription and morphologic and
morphometric comparison between early larval stages of species of the subfamily
Eballinae found in the south Atlantic, providing data to assist in the separation and
identification of species. The larvae were obtained from ovigerous females of P.
mediterranea, P. lichtensteinii and P. punctata, collected in Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil
(23 º 26'S and 45 º 05'W) by bottom trawls between 10 and 15m depth. The drawings
and descriptions made for the larvae (Zoea I), as well all their appendices were made
using a microscope Zeiss, equipped with a camera lucida. For morphometric analysis,
15 larvae of each species were measured using a Zeiss microscope, equipped with a
image and measure system. Of each larva were taken 8 different morphometric
measures (variables), subsequent the data were submitted to a discriminant function
analysis. Significantly differences among the species were found in relation with the
morphological and morphometric characteristics. These characteristics may help to
elucidate the identification of species of Leucosioidea found in the south Atlantic, and
can be an important tool in ecological studies, supporting the identification of
planktonic morphotypes, which then can be identified at the species level. In general,
very little is known, yet, on the larval forms of Leucosioidea from South Atlantic. This
lack of information hampers the clarification of taxonomic relationships, which are of
fundamental importance for understanding the phylogeny of this group.
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