Intra- and Interspecific Variation in Sexual Dimorphism Patterns of Mud Crab Genus Scylla Along the Equatorial Region

Frontiers in Marine Science

Khor Waiho¹  Muyassar H. Abualreesh²  Sairatul Dahlianis Ishak³  Mohamad Jalilah³  Ghazali Azmie³  Alexander Chong Shu-Chien⁴  Hanafiah Fazhan⁵  Mhd Ikhwanuddin⁵ 

[1] Centre for Chemical Biology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Malaysia;Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia;School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Malaysia;Shantou University-Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (STU-UMT) Joint Shellfish Research Laboratory, Shantou University, Shantou, China;

关键词: sexual dimorphism;    Scylla;    discriminant function analysis;    morphometric ratios;    brachyuran;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmars.2021.690836

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Sexual dimorphism is generally obvious in brachyurans, and sexual dimorphism between species is of a higher degree to allow separation of trophic niches compared to the lower intraspecific variations between sexes. Mud crab genus Scylla are distributed along the Indo-West Pacific region, and species within this genus often exhibit overlapping niches and similar external morphologies. This study compared the intra- and interspecific sexual dimorphism patterns of three sympatric Scylla species from four distinct geographical locations along the equatorial region based on 24 morphometric characters. The consistency of sexual dimorphism patterns between locations was higher than between species. However, reproduction-related characters such as cheliped dimensions and abdomen width (AW) exhibited similar sexual dimorphism patterns across species. Discriminant function analysis based on the 23 morphometric ratios revealed the morphometric intraspecific divergence in all three Scylla species from the Asajaya mangrove forest. The cause for this regional intraspecific differentiation of mud crabs from the Asajaya mangrove forest remains unknown.

【 授权许可】

Unknown