Diversity of the brachyuran crabs of the mangroves of southern red sea coast of Saudi Arabia

Abstract EN

Studies on the diversity of the mangrove-associated brachyuran crabs of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia are limited.

The diversity of the brachyuran crabs from two stations, Ad Darb (station 1) and Jazan (station 2), was studied in this work.

Sites under mangrove vegetation and lagoons enclosed by mangrove vegetation were included in the study.

Ten species from five families were collected during the survey: Metopograpsus thukuhar (Grapsidae), Ashtoret sp.

(Matutidae), Macrophthalmus depressus, M.

grandidieri (Macrophthalmidae), Austruca albimana, Cranuca inversa, Tubuca urvillei (Ocypodidae), Eurycarcinus sp.

(Pilumnidae), Portunus segnis and Thalamita sp.(Portunidae).

One-way ANOVA results show that there are no variations between sites over abundance.

Sites under mangrove vegetation are species rich, and have higher values of Margalef species richness, Pielou’s evenness and Shannon–Wiener diversity index.

Multivariate analyses show similarities or dissimilarities between different sites due to the presence or absence of species and their abundance