Abstract
To date, Trapezia spp. crabs have been considered obligate symbionts of pocilloporid corals. They protect their coral hosts from predators and are essential for the health of certain coral species. However, the basic details of this group of crustaceans are lacking, and there is a need for species-level molecular markers. The Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) region harbors important coral communities mainly built by corals of the genus Pocillopora, with three known Trapezia species known to associate with them: Trapezia bidentata, T. formosa and T. corallina. Both taxonomic and molecular analyses were carried out with samples of all three crab species collected from Pocillopora spp. in the Central Mexican Pacific. Analysis of both a mitochondrial and a nuclear gene revealed only two species, T. corallina and T. bidentata. T. formosa however appears to be a morphotype of T. bidentata. The use of integrative taxonomy for this group has increased the knowledge of the biodiversity not only of the study area, but of the whole TEP and will enhance the future study of the Trapezia–Pocillopora symbiosis.
Highlights
Coral communities are highly productive ecosystems that harbor a high biodiversity and biomass of small crustaceans [1], among which decapods constitute nearly one-third of the total species [2]
Crustaceans form numerous, complex trophic relationships that are prone to change in response to both natural and anthropogenic stressors that can threaten the integrity of the coral reef ecosystem, including of crustacean assemblages [4]
The crabs identified as T. bidentata (7 females, 5 males and 1 juvenile) showed most of the morphologic characteristics of T. formosa with the key difference being that the specimens identified as
Summary
Coral communities are highly productive ecosystems that harbor a high biodiversity and biomass of small crustaceans [1], among which decapods constitute nearly one-third of the total species [2]. Members of the genus Trapezia (Decapoda, Brachyura, Trapeziidae) are ecologically important crustaceans that form obligate symbioses with hermatypic corals of the most widely distributed and abundant genus of the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP): Pocillopora [5]. Trapezia crabs live their entire lives, sheltered among the coral branches, providing to the whole colony a defense system against conspecifics and against predators that threaten the coral, such as the corallivorous crown-of-thorns sea star (Acanthaster sp.) [6]. Smaller-sized individuals (new recruits, juveniles and even adults) mainly live at the base of the coral colony [8], promoting a hierarchy in Oceans 2020, 1, 156–164; doi:10.3390/oceans1030011 www.mdpi.com/journal/oceans
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