NOTES AND NEWS EXTENSIONOF THEKNOWN DISTRIBUTION OF CHARYBDISHELLERII (A.MILNE-EDW ARDS,1867) (DECAPODA, POR TUNIDAE) ALONGTHE WESTERN TROPICAL SOUTH A TLANTIC BY FERNANDO LUIS MEDINA MANTELATTO 1;2;3)andLUCIANO LUIZ DIAS 1) 1)Depto.de Biologia, Faculdade de Filoso a, Ci^enciase Letrasde Ribeir ao~ Preto (FFCLRP), Universidadede S ao~ Paulo (USP), Av.Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14040-901Ribeir ao~ Preto, SP, Brazil 2)NEBECC (Groupof Studies on Crustacean Biology, Ecology and Culture) Charybdishellerii (A.Milne-Edwards, 1867), a species ofIndo-W est Paci c origin,has migrated to several areas ofthe MediterraneanSea throughthe Suez Canal,and has also beenfound in the western Atlantic Ocean.Detailed informa- tion aboutits occurrenceon the east coast ofNorth America (IndianRiver near Fort Pierce, Florida),its routeof distribution in the western Atlantic Ocean,and data onits biologycan be found in Lemaitre (1995),who also referredto the captureof this species in Colombia(Campos & T urkay, 1989), Cuba (G omez´ & Mart´onez-Iglesias, 1990),and V enezuela(Hern andez´ & Bolanos,~ 1995). Accordingto Melo (1996),twenty portunid species havebeen recorded in Brazilian waters. Recently C. hellerii was addedto the species foundin this area. The rst tworecords of young specimens wereprovided by Carqueija & Gouv^ea (1996)who reported them fromBahia State andby Calado(1996) from AlagoasState; Negreiros-Fransozo(1996) described the morphologyof the rst zoeafrom an ovigerous female collected in UbatubaBay, northern coast ofS ao~ Paulo,and Mantelatto &Souza-Carey(1998) reported the presenceof immature individuals onbryozoan colonies of Schizoporellaunicornis (Johnston,1847) sampled in this bay;Tavares & Mendonc¸a(1996)documented the presenceof this species in Rio deJaneiro State. Atotal of45males (mean,and minimum to maximumcarapace width (CW), notincluding the lateral spine: 45 :4 13:2mm,7.5 to 64.9mm), 31 females § (35:5 10:8mm,15.3 to 51.6mm), and 39 ovigerousfemales (43 :6 5:0 mm, § § 3) e-mail: [email protected] Ó KoninklijkeBrill NV ,Leiden,1999 Crustaceana 72(6) 618 NOTESAND NEWS 35.2to 59.3mm) werecollected duringa monthlysurvey with twootter-trawls, fromMarch to August1996 in UbatubaBay (23 ¯260S 45¯020W),especially at a site with calm water nearthe coastline, onanon-consolidatedsublittoral bottom consisting ofgraveland very coarse sand,at adepthof 9meters. Thepopulation studied,characterized byhigh densities ofadult, young, and ovigerous females specimens, con rms the hypothesisof Negreiros-Fransozo(1996) that C. hellerii is well established in this bay,and will represent aformcompeting with native species. Inthis sense, wehavebeen studying the populationcharacteristics and reproductiveaspects ofthis species to acquiremore information that will facilitate the futurediscovery and monitoring of populations of this portunidcrab. InApril 1998,six adult males (CW = 63:3 5:9mm,58.5 to 72.7mm) of § C. hellerii werecaught in baited traps onthe rockyshore of South Caieira da Barra (27¯480S 48¯380W), Florianopolis,´ Santa Catarina State, at adepthfrom 0.5to 2m.The present communicationis the rst reportof this species in Santa Catarina State andextends the rangeof this species in the western Atlantic farther to the southin the Brazilian region.Once a populationis successfully established in this region,further dispersal to otherareas becomespossible, with consequentadaptation to coexistence with others members ofthat community. Assuggestedby G omez´ & Mart´onez-Iglesias (1990),it is also possible that this species was introducedat oneor moresites andsubsequently dispersed via larval stages to variousother coastal areas. Thepresence of Charybdishellerii in the Ubatubaand Florian opolis´ regions, suggests that the arrival ofthis species, certainly asalarval stage, mayhave oc- curredin recent times, probably1993-1994. Despite the lack ofaccurate analysis ofthis population,this evidenceis basedon (1)chronological order and locations ofcapture in the western Atlantic, principally in Brazilian waters (see Brazilian reports mentionedpreviously and Tavares & Mendonc¸a,1996). According to these last authors,the transport oflarval stages occursby the Brazilian current (north-southdirection) andresults in subsequentcolonization of sheltered sites farther south; and(2) the estimate that the size atsexual maturity in C. hellerii mayoccur close to 35.0mm CW,judgingby the smallest ovigerousfemale cap- tured.This conditionis verysimilar to the onedescribed for Callinectes ornatus Ordway,1863, a portunidcrab of similar size studied in the Ubatubaregion, that attains maturity at 45.0mm CWin 1.5years (Mantelatto &Fransozo,1996). It is still tooearly to infer the true size andtime forattaining maturity in the present population.The size ofmature specimens in ourcollection is in accordanceto the supposedtime ofarrival, consideringthat suchindividuals took1-2 years to develop,and attain amature condition..