Duarte et al: Relative growth, population structure, and reproductive biology of slipper lobsters (Scyllaridae) 
59 
Table 1 
Morphometric relationships for the hooded slipper lobster ( Scyllarides deceptor) sampled from May 2006 through April 2007 
from pot-and-trap and double-trawler fleets that operate off southeastern Brazil. Data include results from mathematical 
equations (power function and log transformation), adjustments (coefficient of determination [r 2 ]), and analysis of covariance 
between the regressions of each biometric relation and allometric representation with 5% significance (f-test). AL=antenna 
length; LA=abdomen length; CL=carapace length; TL=total length; abdomen width=AW; CW=carapace width; W=weight; 
0=isometric growth (6=1); +=positive allometric growth (6>1); -=negative allometric growth (6<1); M=males; and F=females. 
The relationship of the weight of animals was compared with the value 3 for 6 from the morphometric analysis. Significance 
codes: ns=P>0.05; *=P<0.05; **=P<0.01; and ** :|: =P<0.001. 
Morphometric 
relation 
Sex 
n 
Power function 
Y = ax b 
Power function 
(linear form) 
lny = Ino + (6 x lmc) 
r 2 
Intercept 
(a) 
Slope 
allometry 
(6) 
(P< 0.05) 
ALxTL 
M 
189 
AL= 0.243 TL 0 - 973 
lnAL=- 1.48+0.973 InTL 
0.85 
0.021 
0.111 
0 
F 
184 
AL=0.281 TL 0944 
lnAL=-l. 27+0.944 InTL 
0.92 
* 
ns 
- 
CLxTL 
M 
191 
CL=0.515 TL 0 919 
lnCL=-0.664+0.919 In TL 
0.92 
0. 006 
0.626 
- 
F 
182 
CL=0.470 TL 0 - 934 
lnCL=-0.755+0.934 InTL 
0.97 
ns 
- 
LAxTL 
M 
190 
AL=0.339 TL 1 054 
lnAL=-1.081+1.054 InTL 
0.89 
0.0002 
0.352 
0 
F 
184 
AL=0.321 TL 1 068 
lnAL=-l. 14+1.067 In TL 
0.97 
*** 
ns 
+ 
AWxTL 
M 
163 
AW=0.312 TL 0 - 951 
lnAW=-1.16+0.951 InTL 
0.93 
<2.10- 16 
0.066 
0 
F 
171 
AW=0.269 TL 0 - 986 
lnAW=-1.31+0.986 InTL 
0.93 
*** 
ns 
0 
CWxTL 
M 
272 
CW= 0.653 TL 0 - 869 
lnCW= -0.427+0.869 InTL 
0.9 
0.225 
0.376 
- 
F 
266 
CW= 0.657 TL 0 - 86 8 
lnCW=-0.419+0.868 InTL 
0.95 
ns 
ns 
- 
Total 
538 
CW=0.655 TL 0 860 
lnCW=-0.401+0.864 InTL 
0.94 
- 
- 
- 
WxTL 
M 
392 
W=0.0644 TL 2 13 
lnW=-9.037+2.73 InTL 
0.93 
0.289 
<2.10 -16 
- 
F 
437 
W=0.0771 TL 2 - 67 
lnW=-8.707+2.67 In TL 
0.93 
ns 
*** 
- 
evaluate the size of the specimens by sex. Interactions 
between variables were not evaluated. In al! cases, the 
means were compared by a posteriori multiple compar- 
ison with Tukey’s honestly significant difference test 
(Zar, 1999; Faraway, 2002). The chi-square (% 2 ) test was 
used to evaluate whether the sex ratio was different 
from 1:1 in samples with a sample size in) >10 indi- 
viduals (Zar, 1999), depending on the month, season, 
size class (TL, measured in centimeters), fishing gear, 
and fishing area. 
Results 
Distributions of fishing cruises and specimens caught 
Of the 72 landings by 25 double trawlers that operated 
at depths of 40-220 m between the latitudes 23°20'S 
and 26°13'S during the study period from May 2006 
to April 2007, 51.4% contained specimens of the hood- 
ed slipper lobster. Lobster occurred in 100% of the 28 
landings of the pot-and-trap fleet, which operated at 
depths of 43-180 m and at latitudes between 23°30'S 
and 27°00'S. 
During the study period, 1029 specimens were 
counted, with most obtained by the pot-and-trap fleet 
(65.2%) rather than by double trawlers (34.8%). The 
hooded slipper lobster was abundant during all months 
of the study period. A small number of specimens of 
the Brazilian slipper lobster were captured in April 
2007 from a single double trawler landing from a depth 
between 45 and 130 m farther north in the study area 
(from 23°30'S, 43°00'W to 24°19'S, 45°09'W). 
Relative growth 
All the morphometric relations showed a coefficient of 
determination (r 2 ) with values between 0.85 and 0.97 
(Table 1). The relation ALxTL (females), as well as the 
relations of CLxTL, CWxTL, and WxTL (both sexes), 
showed a negative allometry of the dependent variables 
in relation to body size (TL) of hooded slipper lobster. 
The allometric growth was positive only for the rela- 
tion LAxTL (females) (6>1), indicating a higher growth 
rate of the dependent variable in relation to the body 
size of this sex. For other cases, the growth was isomet- 
ric (6=1), indicating no change in growth rate between 
the variables during ontogeny. However, no inflection 
(or break point) was observed during the segmentation 
analysis of the regression lines, indicating no signifi- 
cant morphometric differences between juveniles and 
adults for both sexes of the hooded slipper lobster. 
In the analysis of covariance (Table 1), the linear 
growth phases of juveniles and adults were observed 
to be similar between the sexes in the CWxTL linear 
equations and could be grouped for the total number of 
individuals of both sexes combined. This phenomenon 
was not observed for the other relationships (ALxTL, 
