FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 3 



Variations. — In some ways C. gladiator 

 resembles the "acutidens" form of C. sapidus, 

 surpassing it in development of even more acute, 

 slender spination, and showing variable ridging 

 or cresting of granulations on branchial lobes and 

 mesobranchial regions as well as formation of a 

 transverse ridge of granules on each cardiac lobe. 

 The peaking of granules is apparent at quite small 

 size. In addition, these lobes and regions are often 

 prominent and thrown into somewhat angular 

 planes bordering the contrastingly sunken 

 metagastric area. The second abdominal segment 

 terminates laterally in a spine usually sharper 

 and more prominent than in other species of the 

 genus, especially in young or freshly molted indi- 

 viduals. 



The lateral spines of most individuals are rela- 

 tively the longest among species in the genus. 

 Anterolateral teeth may be bilaterally asymmet- 

 rical in number. Tips of the teeth may lie in a 

 nearly straight line providing relatively flat an- 

 terolateral arcs. All older individuals have a 

 rounded notch between the first two anterolateral 

 teeth. The lower side of each anterolateral margin 

 becomes hairy at an early age. 



Openness of the inner orbital fissure is random, 

 bearing no relationship to age or width of 

 carapace. When the fissure is closed, a V-shaped 

 notch usually remains open on the orbital margin. 



First gonopods of males are not completely 

 S-shaped and not overlapping in juveniles; in a 

 few males they extend to the level of a suture 

 between thoracic sternites VI and VII. The first 

 gonopods may be unnaturally splayed in pre- 

 served specimens. Abdominal segment 6 is often 

 poorly calcified at midlength in males. 



Distribution. — West Africa from Bale de Saint- 

 Jean, 19°27'N, 16°22'W, Mauritania, to Baia do 

 Lobito, Angola (Figure 24). 



Habitat. — Longhurst (1958) provided an excel- 

 lent ecological summary of the West African 

 marine benthos primarily in and off" the Sierra 

 Leone River, but elsewhere as well. He found that 

 in shelf regions under the influence of tropical 

 shelf water a characteristic fauna was revealed by 

 otter trawls in each sector investigated; the most 

 important species were the swimming crabs C. 

 gladiator and Portunus validus Herklots which 

 occur in most hauls together with Penaeus 

 duorarum notialis Burkenroad, P. kerathurus 

 (Forsskdl), Parapenaeus longirostris (Lucas), 



Panulirus rissonii (Desmarest), and Sepia 

 officinalis Linn. Off the Sulima River [ = Moa 

 River, Sierra Leone] occurrence of this fauna cor- 

 responded with the inshore Cynoscion fauna of 

 demersal fish, with the thermocline as its lower 

 limit. In samples, this fauna extended from 

 Senegal to the Bight of Biafra, the genera Cal- 

 linectes, Portunus, and Panulirus occurring in a 

 high proportion of hauls from shallowest to 50 m. 

 Irvine (1947), Rossignol (1962), and Crosnier 

 (1964) essentially said the same, that this coastal 

 marine species lives on the bottom from shore to 

 depths of 30 m on sand, sandy mud, or gravel, 

 sometimes with a mixture of shell fragments 

 (Sourie, 1954a) in warm water. 



Both Monod (1927) and Rossignol (1957) re- 

 marked on the small size and abundance as well as 

 the rapidity and aggressiveness with which C. 

 gladiator moves, the latter saying that it often 

 rests three-fourths buried in a predatory position 

 with only antennae and pincers exposed. In addi- 

 tion to trawl hauls, the crab is captured in nets 

 allowed to hang a few feet from the bottom (Irvine, 

 1947) and at the surface with dip nets under lights 

 at night. 



Though found in estuaries to some extent, these 

 accounts imply that C. gladiator is much like C. 

 similis of the western Atlantic in ecological as- 

 sociation and behavior, and less estuarine than C. 

 latimanus. 



Spawning. — Museum records provide only an 

 outline of spawning that may go on all year. Rec- 

 ords of ovigerous females are: December, Angola; 

 January, Guinea, Liberia, and Cameroon; Feb- 

 ruary, Cameroon; March, Sierra Leone, Congo; 

 April, Ghana; May, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and 

 Nigeria; June, Sao Tome; October, Congo. 



Economic importance . — No direct statements of 

 economic importance are made in literature. Ir- 

 vine (1947) reported the flesh and eggs edible and 

 of good quality. 



Remarks. — Aside from taxonomic accounts and 

 faunal lists, there is less published information on 

 C. gladiator than most Callinectes. Like others, 

 larger or older specimens often bear one or more 

 barnacles of the genus Chelonibia on the carapace. 

 Teeth of fingers on the major chelae are often 

 worn, and the major hands often seem dispropor- 

 tionately large for the size of the animal. One 

 ovigerous female in the BMNH (unregistered) 



736 



