Stomatopod and decapod crustaceans from Camamu Bay, state of Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

Camamu Bay, located on the central coast of the state of Bahia, Brazil (13°47’ to 14°10’S), is the third-largest Brazilian bay. It is included in a zone that perhaps constitutes the last unexplored frontier on the Brazilian coast, situated between Todos os Santos Bay in Bahia, and the city of Vitória in Espírito Santo. Moreover, this zone coincides with an area of remarkable zoogeographical interest, the transition zone between the Brazilian and Paulista provinces. Camamu Bay contains a wide diversity of marine environments such as sandy beaches, rocky substrata, and mangroves, and it is still in a good state of preservation compared to other large Brazilian bays. The objective of this study was to survey the fauna of Crustacea (orders Stomatopoda and Decapoda) in Camamu Bay. The material analyzed was collected by trawling from July 2003 to September 2005. Voucher specimens were deposited in the collections of the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz and the Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, located in the cities of Ilhéus and Jequié (state of Bahia, Brazil), respectively. A total of 93 species, belonging to 35 families, was collected. The order Stomatopoda was represented by 3 families and 4 species; the order Decapoda was represented by 31 families and 89 species. The most important family in terms of number of species was Alpheidae, with 11 species. Of the total number of species, 88 are recorded from Camamu Bay for the first time, while 10 species are cited from the state of Bahia for the first time. The southern geographical distributional limits in the western Atlantic for the caridean Synalpheus pandionis and the brachyurans Macrocoeloma laevigatum and Elamena gordonae are extended.

Descriptive and illustrated diagnosis of Ophiuroidea fauna (Echinodermata) in the shallow waters of North-eastern Brazil

“…Hence, it is essential to investigate these species in order to conduct any further study and/or planning towards the conservation of estuary regions (Almeida et al, 2007). The situation is even worse regarding places in Northern and North-eastern Brazil, where many locations and environments have not yet been surveyed faunistically (Lana et al, 1996).…”

“…A literature review on the faunal and taxonomic studies conducted in these environments has shown that researchers mainly investigate specific groups, such as crustaceans (Severino-Rodrigues et al, 2001;Almeida et al, 2007), bivalves (Fiori, 2007), gastropods (Vasconcelos et al, 2004;Fiori, 2007;Ourives, 2007), nematodes (Fiori, 2007), polychaetes (Vasconcelos et al, 2004;Fiori, 2007), leeches (Fiori, 2007), cnidarians (Mesquita et al, 2006;Fiori, 2007) and fishes (Ramos & Vieira, 2001;Loebmann & Vieira, 2005;Falcão et al, 2006).…”

“…However, anthropogenic pollutants have affected this ecosystem (Guerrazzi, personal communication). Consequently, faunal inventories are of great importance, since few studies have been conducted in the region, with the exception of crustaceans studied by Almeida et al (2007), gastropods by Ourives et al (2011) and echinoderms by Manso (2004).…”

“…It contains many islands in its interior and has an extensive estuary area bordered by mangroves, salt marshes, rocky shores and the Atlantic Forest, forming natural pools and reefs along the coast, which are still well preserved and also little studied. Another peculiar characteristic of the area is the great opening of the mouth, which allows a massive influx of sea water in comparison to the current flow of the rivers, giving the bay a favourable environment for marine life (Oliveira et al, 1998(Oliveira et al, , 2002Almeida et al, 2007;Hatje et al, 2008).…”

Notes on marine shallow-water carideans (Pasiphaeidae, Gnathophyllidae, and Processidae) from Quintana Roo, Mexico

“…Decapod crustaceans are important members of tropical benthic communities, some species of larger size have economic interest as food source for humans, but a great variety of small species, such as caridean shrimps, contribute to the functioning of tropical ecosystems (Bauer, 1985;Almeida et al, 2007). The systematic composition of the local assemblages of these organisms has been studied in various tropical regions, including the coasts of Mexico (Markham et al, 1990;Hernández Aguilera et al, 1996;Wicksten & Hendrickx, 2003).…”