Quais são as características populacionais do caranguejo aranha Libinia ferreirae Brito Capello, 1871 no litoral paulista?

Abstract

The commercial shrimp fishing causes several imbalances to the benthic community, since the trawls to perform this activity do not have selectivity, in other words, several species of marine organisms with and without economic value are captured during the activity. The spider crab, Libinia ferreirae, is one of the species that make up the bycatch of commercial shrimp fisheries. Thus, the present study aims to characterize the population structure of L. ferreirae in the estuarine region of Cananéia, located on the south coast of São Paulo, with emphasis on the sex ratio and the frequency of individuals in size classes. Individuals were collected monthly, from March 2012 to May 2013, using a shrimp boat equipped with a double-rig trawl. Contrary to the pattern found in crab species, adult specimens did not show differences in size and there were no deviations in sex ratio either. All demographic groups were sampled in the collection region, showing that the Cananéia region possibly offers favorable conditions for the development of the spider crab throughout its life cycle.