Estrutura populacional de Macrobrachium brasiliense (Crustacea, Palaemonidae) do Córrego Escondido, Batayporã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine Macrobrachium brasiliense (Heller, 1862) population biology with emphasis on abundance, frequency distribution, sexual proportion and recruitment of this species in the Escondido stream (Batayporã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil). Shrimp were monthly collected during one year, from January 2006 to December 2006, in three predetermined points, according to diversity of habitats. The capture effort was performed by two people for 30 minutes in each point and a total of 911 shrimp were collected. The sex of the collected individuals was determined based on the presence of the masculine appendix, and the total length and the carapace length were measured for each animal. The greatest reproductive activity of this species probably occurs in the spring and the beginning of the recruitment, in the summer. No significant difference was observed between sexes and the sexual proportion found was 1:1,1.