FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 3 



pubescence on legs beige. Swimming legs variably 

 mottled with white; all legs with stellate fuchsia 

 markings at articulations. Underparts white and 

 blue." (Williams, 1965). 



Ovigerous female: "Similar to male except with 

 more violet blue on inner surface of chelae; fingers 

 either with white teeth or fuchsia colored teeth. 

 Legs with dactyls reddish orange grading a- 

 bruptly to blue on propodi, pubescence brown to 

 beige. Abdomen with iridescent areas." (Williams, 

 1965). 



Carapace of juveniles sometimes with a macu- 

 late light olive pattern. 



Variation. — Borders of the metagastric area are 

 somewhat more deeply defined on young indi- 

 viduals than adults, and the shape of this area 

 tends toward that in C. danae (USNM 123015, 

 Mississippi) in the young. Differentiation of the 

 major and minor chelae resembles that in other 

 members of the genus although the two chelae on 

 most individuals tend to be similar sized. In some 

 specimens the major chela has a strong proximal 

 tooth on the dactyl. 



Habitat. — Franks et al. (1972) gave a good 

 summary of habitat for this species. In Mississippi 

 they caught it year round in trawl samples from 9- 

 to 92-m depths at temperatures ranging from 

 13.2° to 29.0°C and in salinities ranging from 24.9 

 to 37.4 /{o, but it was most abundant in 37-m 

 depths and showed a slight preference for 29.0 to 

 31.9 /CO salinities. The same environment exists in 

 northeastern Florida where Tagatz (1967) found 

 the species most abundant in the ocean near shore 

 and in the lower 25 miles of St. Johns River, 

 mainly in salinities greater than 15 ao; also in 

 North Carolina it is seldom found in estuaries 

 beyond lower limits of 15 ao salinity. In all areas 

 studied the species is associated with C. sapidus, 

 often in large numbers, but it is usually culled out 

 of commercial catches because of its small size 

 (Lunz, 1958; Pounds, 1961; Williams, 1966; 

 Franks et al., 1972). 



Spawning. — Published data on spawning in 

 Texas and South and North Carolina summarized 

 by Williams (1966) suggested a spring and fall 

 spawning season for C. similis, and Tagatz (1967) 

 found this true for northeastern Florida as well 

 where females spawn in the ocean from March to 

 July, peaking in May when 75% of them are 

 ovigerous, and again from October to November. 



Ovigerous females in the collection of the USNM 

 indicate that these limits are somewhat broader 

 elsewhere and may be correlated with tempera- 

 ture, for there are representatives from Louisiana 

 and Texas in February and Campeche Banks in 

 December. 



Distribution. — Off Delaware Bay to Key West, 

 Fla.; northwestern Florida around Gulf of Mexico 

 to off Campeche, Yucatan (Figure 24). 



Remarks. — Small- to medium-sized juveniles 

 are extremely difficult to identify in parts of the 

 range where C. danae and C. ornatus also occur 

 (southern Florida). 



The few specimens from off Delaware Bay are 

 all juveniles, suggesting that northern limits for 

 this species, as for many others from the Carolin- 

 ian Province, vary seasonally and are extended 

 northward during favorable warm years. 



Among unusual specimens seen, a female taken 

 off Cape San Bias, Fla. (USNM 101429) with 

 carapace measuring 37 mm long x 64 mm wide, 

 exclusive of lateral spines, bears dorsally the 

 largest Chelonibia seen fouling the species. The 

 barnacle measures 18.5 x 21.3 mm at base x 18.3 

 mm height of sidewall. An immature female crab 

 taken off Timbalier Bay, La. (USNM 123026) has 

 that part of the front bearing frontal teeth pro- 

 duced forward. 



Closely resembling C. danae and C. ornatus, C. 

 similis seems to be the Carolinian member of the 

 complex. Callinectes similis has the smoothest 

 and most uniformly granulated carapace among 

 the three, and the shortest, broadest anterolateral 

 teeth. These teeth are not equilaterally triangu- 

 lar, having shorter anterior than posterior bor- 

 ders, and are more directed forward in the anterior 

 portion than in the remainder of the row. Central 

 teeth in the row have the anterior border extend- 

 ing almost straight laterad. The carapace of ma- 

 ture females has very little sculpture and remark- 

 ably uniform granulation overall. Granulations 

 on the ridges of the chelipeds are among the finest 

 of any species of Callinectes. Because of simplicity 

 in structure of the male first gonopods, the rela- 

 tively broad male abdomen and relatively 

 generalized structure of the chelae and frontal 

 teeth, it is tempting to regard this species as one of 

 the most primitive or unspecialized members of 

 the genus and I have arranged it so in the order of 

 presentation, knowing full well that such evi- 

 dence is highly subjective. 



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