The epibiontic assemblage of Geryon longipes (Crustacea: Decapoda: Geryonidae) from the Southern Adriatic Sea

Abstract

The crab Geryon longipes lives in muddy bottoms of bathyal environments. Its epibiontic assemblage was studied in a population from the Southern Adriatic Sea. Four species of invertebrates were observed on the crab exoskeleton. The most abundant was the hydroid Leuckartiara cf. octona; the bryozoan Triticella flava was also quite frequent, while another hydroid, Hydractinia sp., and a bryozoan, Arachnoidea sp. were only occasionally observed. The study of the abundance and the distribution of the two most common epibionts in relation to the crab revealed a different spatio-temporal pattern of colonisation between the hydroid and the bryozoan.