No abstract

The list of Crustacean species from the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, comprises 518 valid species, distributed in 17 orders and 152 families. This amount corresponds to 0.75% of the Crustacea worldwide and about 20% of Brazilian species. The order Decapoda is the most represented, with 280 species. The families of Decapoda with the greatest number of species recorded were: Aeglidae (19), Palaemonidae (13) and Portunidae (13). In addition, the occurrence of 19 species distributed in the orders Cyclopoida (1), Podocopida (2) and Decapoda (16) is reported for the first time. Exotic species (9) are distributed in four different orders - Isopoda (6), Calanoida (1), Thoracica (1) and Decapoda (1).

No abstract

The freshwater crab Aegla platensis was used as a model to induce ovarian growth by adding different neuroregulators to a pellet food formulation. Added compounds were the dopaminergic inhibitor spiperone or the enkephalinergic inhibitor naloxone, both of them at a dose of 10-8 mol/animal. Animals were fed on the enriched pellets twice a week. After 7 wk, the gonadosomatic index (GI) was calculated as (gonad fresh weight / body fresh weight) x 100. GI significantly increased only for those females fed on spiperone pellets, compared to a control group receiving pellets with no compound added. During the assayed period, spiperone would be reverting the arrest exerted by dopamine on the neuroendocrine stimulation of ovarian growth. On the other hand, for both spiperone and naloxone a higher GI was correlated to a higher lipid content of both gonads and/or hepatopancreas, suggesting an increased energetic demand in accordance with an active investment in reproduction.