Dilocarcinus dentatus (Randall, 1839)

Rodríguez, G. & López, B., 2003, Insular species of Neotropical freshwater crabs (Crustacea: Brachyura), Journal of Natural History 37 (21), pp. 2599-2614 : 2600

Dilocarcinus dentatus (Randall, 1839)

Material examined

Mitan , near Nariva Swamp, Trinidad, 27 March 1980, coll. A. E. Esteves, five males, cl 29.1, 30.8, 31.5, 31.8 and 32.3 mm, cb 36.4, 37.5, 39.6, 39.9 and 41.3 mm ( IVIC 734 ) . Hato Terecay , 16 km N of El Manteco, Bolivar State, Venezuela, 7 June 1977, coll. S. Gorzula, one male, cl 30.8 mm, cb 37.3 ( IVIC 720 ) . Caño Onoto , near El Callao, Bolivar State, Venezuela, one male, cl 33.7 mm, cb 41.7 ( IVIC 722 ) . Laguna Campoma , Sucre State, Venezuela, one male, cl 41.6 mm, cb 51.8 ( IVIC 732 ) . Hato Piritu , Calabozo, Aragua State, Venezuela, coll. F. Tamayo, January 1963, one male, cl 31.2 mm, cb 39.3 mm ( IVIC 724 ) . Naguanagua , Carabobo State, Venezuela, coll. F. Rumbos, 7 November 1965, one male, cl 30.3 mm, cb 39.6 mm ( IVIC 729 ) .

Remarks

Pretzmann (1968b) described the subspecies Dilocarcinus dentatus trinidadensis based on a male (cl. 35 mm) from Trinidad, for which he gives the following characters: carapace narrower, flatter; 10 blunt lateral teeth; fingers of larger chela slightly gaping; dactylus shorter; gonopod wider, more recurved; colour dark brown. We compared five male specimens from Mitan, near Nariva Swamp, Trinidad, with five male specimens from several different localities on the nearby mainland of Venezuela, recorded under Material examined, taking the degree of narrowness of the carapace as the ratio cb / cl, its degree of flatness as the ratio cb / ch, and the relative length of the dactylus as the proportion of the dactylus to the length of the ventral border of the chela ( table 1). A larger variability of these characters was observed in Venezuelan specimens; the range of variation of Trinidad specimens was included within the range of variation of Venezuelan specimens. The number of lateral teeth is 10 in both groups, except for one mainland specimen which has nine on the left side, and a Trinidadian specimen which has 11 teeth on the right side. No differences could be noted in the morphology of gonopods in both groups. The colour of specimens (preserved in alcohol) is very variable, from grey to brown, as already observed by Rodríguez (1992).