Changes in the activity budget of the fiddler crab Leptuca uruguayensis throughout the reproductive period in temperate estuaries.

Animal reproductive success implies the performance of several behaviours, such as courting, mate searching, copulation, offspring production and care. These behaviours usually have high energetic and ecological costs. Therefore, to maximise their reproductive success, animals should make choices throughout their lives, such as deciding how much energy to invest in different activities, according to their conditions and needs.

Species composition and abundance of free-living turbellarians in three different wetlands in Southern Brazil.

Free-living turbellarians mostly live in marine and freshwater environments, but they have been little considered in ecological studies. The coastal plain in southern Brazil harbors a diverse fauna and flora, but only a few studies have related environmental factors to the abundance, richness, and distribution of turbellarians. Hence, we analyzed the structure of turbellarian communities in floating vegetation in three differently sized limnic environments.

Sensitivity of embryos and larvae of the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium borellii to the latest generation pesticide spirotetramat.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the last generation insecticide spirotetramat (STM) on embryos and larvae of the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium borellii. Both embryos and larvae were exposed to serial dilutions of STM to determine the LC values. After 96-h of exposure, live larvae were fixed for histological analysis.

Plasticity of growth rates and sizes at sexual maturity in different populations of the fiddler crab Minuca vocator (Herbst, 1804) within the same latitudinal range.

The growth rates and size at maturity of decapod crustaceans usually vary throughout latitudes. Here, we evaluated whether these life history traits can be stable within the same latitude range, where some environmental factors are constant, especially temperature. To this end, we estimated and compared the growth rates and size at sexual maturity of three populations of the fiddler crab Minuca vocator, located at latitude 23° S, in mangroves of the subtropical Brazilian coast.

Female energy dynamics in the southernmost fiddler crab: Mixed breeding strategy in Leptuca uruguayensis.

At the south of its geographical distribution, the fiddler crab Leptuca uruguayensis shows two population spawning events, with more than 65 % of the females being ovigerous. The aim of this study was to assess the energy dynamics in L. uruguayensis females to estimate how they mix the capital and the income breeding strategies in the first and second spawns of the short reproductive season.