Morphological comparison of the juvenile development of two species of Majoidea crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda)

Abstract

The spider crabs, (superfamily MAJOIDEA), are around 950 species distributed all world around. Their importance comes from their ecological role in the marine environments to commercial interest as food source and, also, ornamental one in aquarium trade. There is evidence (particularly, genetics) in the literature that species, occurring at the Brazilian littoral, could be a same one. Nevertheless, the early stages of the life cycle (larvae and juvenile) of such species are scarcely studied. Thus this study aims to describe the morphology and the growth of the juvenile phase of two species of the genus Acanthonyx Latreille, 1828 (A. scutiformis and A. dissimulatus) from specimens obtained in the nature, intertidal zone, in brown algae, at the Brazilian littoral. This research aims, besides the juvenile comparison of the target species, a detailed revision of the problematic identification of these species. (AU)