Figure 1 - uploaded by Tammy Iwasa-Arai
Content may be subject to copyright.
Geographic distribution of Grapsus grapsus. Locations of the mainland records: Fausto Filho (1966), Moreira (1901) (A) and new records (B). Photographs of the adult individual recorded at Ilha dos Franceses, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil (C) and the juvenile individual recorded at Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil (D). Images by: Hudson Pinheiro (C) and Juliana Lins (D).
Source publication
The Sally lightfoot crab, Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758), is distributed along the Eastern Pacific coast and along the Western Atlantic coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Southwestern Atlantic. In Brazil, the only established populations are found on the Brazilian oceanic islands, although two previous records (1901 and 1966) reported the pres...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Sally lightfoot crab Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758) is distributed along the Eastern Pacific, from Baja California to northern Chile, including the Galapagos Islands, and through the Western Atlantic, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Southwestern Atlantic ( Teschima et al., 2016) (Fig. 1A). In Brazil, established populations of the Sally lightfoot crab are found mainly in the intertidal rocky shores of the four oceanic islands: St Peter and St Paul Archipelago, Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Rocas Atoll, and Trindade and Martim Vaz insular complex (Freire et al., 2011;Teschima et al., 2016). In addition to these ...
Context 2
... insular populations, single individuals were previously reported on the Brazilian continental coast by Moreira (1901), who mentioned the presence of the Sally lightfoot crab in the state of Pernambuco, but without a specific location, and by Fausto Filho (1966) -one female collected at Mucuripe beach, state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil, in 1965 (Fig. 1B). Due to these records, Melo (1996) described its distribution throughout the Brazilian coast up to the state of Espírito Santo (~ 20 o S), which is the Trindade Island latitude. However, no established population of the Sally lightfoot crab was confirmed on the Brazilian coast to date, and records from the coast are restricted to ...
Context 3
... latitude. However, no established population of the Sally lightfoot crab was confirmed on the Brazilian coast to date, and records from the coast are restricted to single individuals observed at random sites. Here, we report two new records of individuals of the Sally lightfoot crab found in the northeastern and southeastern coasts of Brazil (Fig. ...
Context 4
... 2005, an adult individual of the Sally lightfoot crab, about 7 cm carapace width, was seen at least on five occasions at Ilha dos Franceses (20°55'36"S 40°45'15"W) (Fig. 1C) -a small island located five kilometres off the coast of Espírito Santo (ES), southeastern Brazil -by a group of researchers from the Federal University of Espírito Santo during fieldwork. The specimen, which is here proposed to be the same individual due to its size and color pattern, was recorded between April and October in a small ...
Context 5
... second record was based on a single individual on a rocky shore of Ponta Negra beach (5°52'59"S 35°09'50"W) (Fig. 1D), state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil. The morphological features and the obvious green color are typical of a juvenile crab (Freire et al., 2011). This record was posted to the nature observation website iNaturalist on 14 February 2020 (https://www.inaturalist.org/ observations/38641375). Citizen science pictures, when ...
Citations
... In the Atlantic, G. grapsus is found from the Gulf of Mexico along the Western Texas coast to Venezuela, and throughout the Caribbean. It is also found on oceanic islands off Brazil and a few locations on the Brazil coast [16]. Specimens have also been found to inhabit freshwater streams in Trindade Island, Brazil [17]. ...
The levels of mercury (Hg) were examined in the leg muscle of the crab Grapsus grapsus from five sites on four islands within the Galápagos archipelago. Mercury values obtained using a Milestone DMA 80 evo direct mercury analyzer varied both within and among sites. Total mercury concentrations (mg kg−1 dry weight) ranged from the lowest at a protected location at Isabela Island (0.06 ± 0.02) to the highest at the San Cristóbal urban location (2.04 ± 0.069). Crabs from South Plaza Island also had surprisingly high levels of mercury with a mean of 1.2 ± 0.6. Values from urban sites at Isabela Island and Academy Bay, Santa Cruz, had intermediate values. When converted to wet weight, crabs from both San Cristóbal and South Plaza were within or above the levels (0.3–0.5 mg kg−1 wet weight set by various government agencies) considered potentially harmful to human health if ingested. A lesser number of both oysters and barnacles were also analyzed for mercury at South Plaza and Academy Bay, and while the values were lower compared to the crabs, they followed the same pattern of elevated levels at South Plaza compared to Academy Bay. It is unclear as to whether the mercury comes from natural sources, such as volcanism, or anthropogenic causes.
... Another crustacean with a similar distribution inhabiting Brazilian oceanic islands, the rock crab grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Decapoda: Grapsidae), was recently recorded off the coast of the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Espírito Santo, Northeast, and Southeast of Brazil, respectively. Owing to the biology of g. grapsus, some hypotheses for its occurrence on the mainland include being transported on floating debris, hitch-hiking on vessels or by larval dispersal from the Brazilian oceanic islands to the coastal areas (Macedo et al. 2021). ...
The yellow land crab, Johngarthia lagostoma (Milne Edwards, 1837), is endemic to Atlantic oceanic islands: Ascension
Island, Trindade and Martin Vaz, Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and Rocas Atoll. Here, we report the first records of
the yellow land crab from the Brazilian continental coastal region on the coast of Pernambuco state, northeastern Brazil.
We also discuss possible reasons for these records of adult specimens of J. lagostoma on the continent. Owing to its
historical use as food, known robustness and ability to escape during transport in fishing boats that frequent the Fernando
de Noronha archipelago, we believe that their presence on the mainland is related to the capture and illegal transport of
the species.
... Despite the large input of G. grapsus larvae of the equatorial islands to the ocean (Brandão et al., 2013) and the larval dispersion simulation towards the mainland, there is no evidence to date of any established population of this species in the Brazilian continental coast (Macedo et al., 2021). Rocha et al. (2005) suggested that ecological speciation may explain why some Caribbean reef fishes do not exist on the Brazilian coast, but are common in the oceanic islands. ...
Grapsus grapsus and Grapsus adscensionis are supralittoral crabs that are known to inhabit oceanic islands and depend on surface currents to recruit in the rocky shores. The ornamentation of the cephalothorax is very distinct among species, but morphological differences are controversial, and integrative studies with different approaches are needed. This study investigated the genetic variation among the populations of G. grapsus from Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SP), Fernando de Noronha (FN), Rocas Atoll (RA) and Trindade Island (TR) in the western Atlantic, and G. adscensionis from the islands of Ascension (AI) and Saint Helena (SH) in the mid-Atlantic. Morphology was assessed by geometric morphometric analyses of the carapace and chelae, and numerical analyses of tubercles in the frontal plate of SP, FN, RA, TR and AI populations. In addition, dispersal of the larvae in the Atlantic Ocean was simulated performing a Lagrangian analysis using HYCOM reanalysis dataset as the ocean surface velocity field. The data obtained for the mitochondrial D-loop gene confirmed the distinctness of the two putative species and demonstrated the connectivity between the populations of G. grapsus from the three equatorial islands. The TR population presented unique haplotypes, as well as AI and SH. The geometric morphometric analyses showed differentiation between the carapace shapes for G. grapsus and G. adscensionis, however, the chelae shape does not allow to distinguish between the species or the population. The morphometric and molecular results were consistent with the pattern of particles dispersion in the Atlantic ocean. The larvae of SP, FN and RA mix after two months of drift, while the larvae of TR, AI, SH circulate only around the respective islands. The results reinforce the validation of the two species and the isolation of populations of G. grapsus in TR and of G. adscensionis in AI and SH. The populations of these islands might be maintained by self-recruitment, through larval behavior associated with the local current system, and therefore should be the target of conservation measures.
