FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 3 



Variation. — Individual variation of first 

 gonopods outlined by Williams (1966) can be 

 elaborated here. The first gonopods of males vary 

 somewhat in length, being either a little longer or 

 shorter than as described above (long in southern, 

 short in northern parts of the range). Males from 

 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, southward tend to have 

 first gonopods reaching near or beyond the suture 

 between thoracic sternites V and VI, as do some 

 specimens examined from St. Lucia in the Wind- 

 ward Islands, but some south Brazilian specimens 

 have shorter first gonopods. Males from north of 

 Rio de Janeiro, northeastern South America, and 

 the West Indies tend to have first gonopods reach- 

 ing from near the middle of thoracic sternite VI to 

 the suture between thoracic sternites VI and VII. 

 The ill defined shortening trend is accentuated in 

 Cuban, Honduran, and a single lot of Floridian 

 material, reaching extreme shortness in the 

 Panamanian region of the Caribbean, especially 

 in USNM lot 43931 in which male gonopods ex- 

 tend only to the suture between thoracic sternites 

 VII and VIII. But in these areas, too, there is 

 enough variation that groupings are hard to 

 define. 



The lower margin of the major chela is often 

 decurved opposite the molar complex of the pro- 

 podus and strongly developed proximal tooth of 

 the dactyl. 



Distribution. — Bermuda; southern Florida and 

 eastern side of Yucatan Peninsula to Estado de 

 Santa Catarina, Brazil (Figure 24). 



Habitat. — Callinectes danae is a common 

 species in Brazil where it occurs from muddy es- 

 tuaries in mangroves and algae covered broken 

 shell bottoms, to beaches and open ocean depths of 

 75 m. Specific limits of salinity tolerated are not 

 well documented, but ranges indicated are from 

 fresh to full sea water, and perhaps to hypersaline 

 lagoons. 



Kretz and Biicherl ( 1940) gave no specific desig- 

 nation to species of Callinectes studied, but they 

 gave (p. 173) a fairly clear description of the first 

 gonopods of C. danae, and their figures, especially 

 2 and 14, indicate this species. Callinectes danae is 

 the most abundant member of the genus along 

 beaches from Santos to Rio de Janeiro where they 

 worked. 



Park (1969) found C. danae only on or adjacent 

 to the ocean side of islands in Biscayne Bay, usu- 

 ally on wave beaten shores. He reported it absent 

 from the Florida Keys. 



Spawning. — The spawning season probably ex- 

 tends year round. Museum collections studied in- 

 clude ovigerous females as follows: January, 

 Surinam; February, Rio de Janeiro; March, 

 Puerto Rico, Haiti, Panama; May, Haiti, Estado de 

 Sao Paulo, Brazil; June, Estado de Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil; July, Colombia, Rio de Janeiro; August, 

 Estados de Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, 

 Brazil; November, Curagao, St. Lucia. Undated 

 collections are from Estados de Bahia, Rio de 

 Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Santa Catarina, Brazil. 

 Taissoun (1969) reported an abundance of oviger- 

 ous females from May to July in the Golfo de 

 Venezuela, implying an even longer spawning 

 season. 



Economic importance. — Literature available 

 does not deal with commercial exploitation of this 

 species except that incidental reports of purchase 

 in markets and capture on fishing vessels imply 

 fairly general usage. 



Vendors along roads NW of Santos, Estado de 

 Sao Paulo, Brazil, near mangrove swamps sell the 

 crabs alive, displaying bunches of a dozen or so 

 each suspended on strings to which the crabs cling 

 by the chelae when they are out of water. 



Remarks. — Closest structurally to C. arcuatus, 

 its Pacific counterpart (shape of carapace, 

 metagastric region, male first gonopods, and fron- 

 tal teeth), C danae also shows similarity to C. 

 marginatus. The metagastric area is much alike 

 in all three species. In C. marginatus the well 

 separated anterolateral teeth trend forward, and 

 the portion of carapace anterior to the epibran- 

 chial line is coarsely granulate. In both C. ar- 

 cuatus and C. danae, although anterior borders of 

 the anterolateral teeth are shorter than posterior 

 borders, the teeth point outward rather than 

 sweep forward. Callinectes danae is quite 

 smoothly granulate over most of the carapace; C. 

 arcuatus is much the same but shows more sculp- 

 tured relief. Among males of the three, C. mar- 

 ginatus has much the slenderest abdomen for its 

 length. The telson of C. danae males is relatively 

 longer than in C. arcuatus. 



Width of the sixth abdominal segment in adult 

 female C. danae is relatively greater than in adult 

 female C. ornatus, a character valued by Rathbun 

 (1930) but one that requires practice to assess. 

 Williams (1966) misnumbered the sixth abdomi- 

 nal segment as the fifth in discussing this charac- 

 ter. 



748 



