Uroptychus nitidus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880)

Vazquez-Bader, Ana Rosa & Gracia, Adolfo, 2016, Diversity and distribution of Chirostyloidea and Galatheoidea (Decapoda, Anomura) in the Southern Gulf of Mexico, ZooKeys 612, pp. 1-30 : 4

Taxon classification Animalia Decapoda Chirostylidae

Uroptychus nitidus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880)

Material examined.

BATO stn. 29, 1 female; stn. 47, 1 female,1 ovigerous female; stn. 48, 1 female, 1 ovigerous female, stn. 53, 1 ovigerous female. BIOREPES 2 stn. 27, 1 male, 1 ovigerous female; stn. 28, 1 male; stn. 28b, 1 male, 1 ovigerous female; stn. 31, 1 female. BIOREPES 3 stn. A16, 1 ovigerous female; stn. C1, 6 males, 2 females, 3 ovigerous females. COBERPES stn. A6, 1 ovigerous female; stn. B10, 1 male; stn. B11, 1 male. COBERPES 2011 stn. B9, 15 males, 4 females, 5 ovigerous females, stn. D1b, 1 female, stn. D10, 1 female stn. C2, 1 male, 1 female, stn. D6b, 3 males, stn. C3, 3 males, 1 female.

Remarks.

This species was the most abundant and frequent of the genus Uroptychus (n = 62 individuals). Specimens were collected off Laguna Madre, Tamaulipas; Términos Lagoon, Campeche; Carmen y Machona, Tabasco; N of Alacranes Reef, and Progreso, Yucatán; between 352 and 1044 m. The maximum abundances were found in spring (58.12%) and in sector ESE (61.3%) between 406.5-1044.0 m depth. The overall sex ratio favored males 1.18 M: 1 F, but it was not statistically significant ( χ 2 = 0.581, with 1 degree of freedom, two-tailed P = 0.45). Ovigerous females were present in spring, summer, and autumn.

The bathymetric range was different in summer (352.0-1144.0) and autumn (510.0-552.0 m). Females presented a slightly larger mean carapace length x = 8.9 ± 3.45 (min. 5.0. max 12.9 mm) than males x = 8.8 ± 2.47 (min. 3.8. max 14.8 mm) and ovigerous females x = 8.4, ± 2.10 (min. 4.8 max 12.8 mm). However, ANOVA analysis were only significant for males, F depth = 6.05, p = 0.00; F season = 9.67, p = 0.00. The Tukey post hoc test, showed that summer was significantly different from autumn and spring. The largest mean size was found in summer whereas the smallest one was observed in autumn (Fig. 2b). Significant differences were found between 800-899 and 1000-1099 m depth interval and the others. Also, a size increasing trend related to depth was apparent (Fig. 2a).