The East Asian shore crab &lt;i&gt;Hemigrapsus sanguineus&lt;/i&gt; (Brachyura: Varunidae) in the Mediterranean Sea: an independent human-mediated introduction

Christoph D Schubart

doi:10.3989/scimar.2003.67n2195

Abstract

A single adult male specimen of the East Asian crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus (de Haan, 1835) was collected in August 2001 in the northern Adriatic Sea along the northwest coast of the peninsula of Istra. This is the first record of this genus and species from the Mediterranean Sea. Previously, Hemigrapsus sanguineus had been reported to invade the Atlantic coasts of North America and of western France, while the congeneric East Asian species, Hemigrapsus penicillatus (de Haan, 1835), has established breeding populations along the Atlantic coast of Europe. The current absence of Hemigrapsus sanguineus in southern Europe and the western Mediterranean suggests an independent human-mediated introduction of the Croatian specimen. Preliminary genetic analyses reveal that specimens from Istra, North America, and Japan have identical DNA haplotypes corresponding to the mitochondrial large subunit rRNA gene (16S mtDNA), while the homologous sequence from a specimen of Taiwan differs in two out of 525 nucleotides.

Highlights

During the past twelve years, two East Asian crab species of the genus Hemigrapsus have invaded almost simultaneously the temperate coasts of the eastern (H. penicillatus) and western (H. sanguineus) North Atlantic (Williams and McDermott, 1990; Noël et al, 1997)
The shallow subtidal and intertidal crustacean fauna of Uvala Slanik was studied along the rocky shore of the Ladin Gaj Campground in August 2001
The collected crustaceans were killed on ice or transported alive to the University of Regensburg (Germany) for colour photography previous to preservation in 95%

Summary

Introduction

See Martin and Davis, 2001; Schubart et al., 2002) have invaded almost simultaneously the temperate coasts of the eastern (H. penicillatus) and western (H. sanguineus) North Atlantic (Williams and McDermott, 1990; Noël et al, 1997) This genus was unknown in the Atlantic Ocean. Both species were found to reproduce in their new environments (McDermott, 1991; 1998a; Noël et al, 1997) They have rapidly extended their distributional ranges and are successfully established over several hundred kilometres of the respective coastlines (McDermott, 1999; Nijland and Beekman, 2000). In their native East Asia, H. penicillatus and H. sanguineus are known to thrive in quite different ecological niches. The first species is more common along protected shores with low wave action and soft sediments (e.g. lagoons and estuaries), while H

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion