records of portunid crabs ( Decapoda : Brachyura : Portunidae ) from Sergipe , NE Brazil

Four portunid crabs species, including an exotic one, are recorded for the first time from the state of Sergipe, NE Brazil. Although common along the Brazilian coast, the new records of the crabs Callinectes bocourti A. Milne-Edwards, 1879, C. exasperatus (Gerstaecker, 1856), C. marginatus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1861) and Charybdis hellerii (A. Milne-Edwards, 1867) (Decapoda, Brachyura, Portunidae) reflect the poor knowledge about crustacean fauna in the state of Sergipe, and reinforce the need for systematic surveys to better understand the local biodiversity. Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Departamento de Engenharia de Pesca e Aquicultura. Av. Marechal Rondon, s/n. CEP 49100-000. São Cristóvão,

In this scientific note, four portunid species, including one exotic, are herein reported for the first time for the state of Sergipe.All examined individuals were caught during fishing hauls, using a beach seine net 30 m long and 2.8 m height with a stretched mesh size of 5 mm, carried out along estuarine regions of three local rivers (i.e., Real, Sergipe and Vaza-Barris) from 2011 to 2013.The crabs were kept in ice and send to identification.At laboratory, the specimens were identified according to Melo (1996) and Tavares and Mendonça Jr. (2011) 1a,b) Material examined: one male (NEP-CRUST 0014); width of the carapace at the base of the largest lateral spine measuring 89.8 mm, length of carapace of 52.79 mm and wet weight of 106.2 g, collected at the estuary of the Sergipe River (10°45′58″ S, 37°09′14″ W), on April 6 th , 2011.
The portunid crab C. hellerii is an exotic species native to the Indo-West Pacific Ocean and was reported for the first time by Calado (1996), Carqueija andGouvêa (1996), and Tavares and Mendonça Jr (1996)  Rio de Janeiro, respectively.Currently, this species has become successfully established along the Brazilian coast (Tavares 2011), which is confirmed with this new occurrence for Sergipe.
Besides their wide distribution, the present records of C. bocourti, C. marginatus, C. exasperatus and Charybdis hellerii represent the first ones for the state of Sergipe, filling a gap in the species distribution along the NE Brazilian coast, as well as increasing to 11 the number of species of the Portunidae family known for the state.If we considerate the total number of portunid species found along NE Brazilian coast (i.e., 21 species) as well as recorded from Alagoas (14 spp.) and Bahia (15 spp.) states (see Coelho et al. 2008), this number should increase with more systematic surveys.
In the last carcinological survey carried out along Sergipe coast, Coelho et al. (1994) recorded 11 new crustacean species from shrimp by-catch samples.According to these authors, although expected the presence of many crustacean species which occur at neighbor states still waiting to be confirmed.For example, the portunid crabs Achelous ordwayi (Stimpson 1860) and A. spinicarpus (Stimpson 1871) have been cited to both Alagoas and Bahia states (Coelho et al. 2008) but haven't been recorded to Sergipe coast yet.
Despite its small coastal line (ca.160 km), Sergipe has also five estuarine systems with large mangroves areas which have been poorly studied.Thus, these findings confirm how poor is the knowledge of crustacean fauna for the state and reinforce the need for systematic surveys to better understand local biodiversity.