COMPARISON OF DISICCATION TOLERANCE IN TWO GRAPSIDS CRABS: C. angulatus AND N.granulata

ROJAS, FERNANDO; PERILLO, GERARDO E. M.; MENÉNDEZ, MARÍA CLARA

Chascomus

Congreso; XVI Jornadas de la Sociedad Argentina de Biología; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Biología

Cyrtograpsus angulatus and Neohelice granulata are most common crabs in the Atlantic coast of South American, both species are present from South of Brazil to the North Patagonia in Argentina. These species are competing on the coastal wetlands for space in the intertidal and for food. Our goal is to determine their desiccation tolerance in lab experiments including if there are differences between sexes. The crabs were captured directly in Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina) (N = 60 individuals per species). The results indicated that males of C. angulatus had lower desiccation tolerance (p > 0.05) in comparison with females, while in N. granulata, the sexes did not differ (p < 0.05). With respect to the desiccation tolerance between species, N. granulata was more tolerant (p > 0.01). The latter shows that although both species share the habitat in the different wetlands of the estuary, N.granulata could colonize more hostile environments than C. angulatus.