Sex dimorphism and ontogenetic allometry of Goyazana castelnaui (Crustacea, Brachyura)

ABSTRACT: In crustaceans, studies of dimorphism using geometric morphometry approach are particularly appropriate due to the facility and accuracy in the identification of homologous landmarks. The aim of this study was identify the existence of sexual and age dimorphism of freshwater crab Goyazana castelnaui (H. Milne-Edwards, 1853), except for the dimorphism of the pleon, since it is an aspect intrinsic to the Brachyura. Were determined 10 anatomical landmarks for ventral view and 11 for the dorsal view. A covariance matrix was generated, containing factors related to the sexes and age groups of each sex, and the images were considered symmetrical. The canonical variate analysis (CVA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were performed with 999 permutations and as comparisons were made based on the Hotteling test (T²) of the Procrustes distance. In the ventral view no variation was found in the form of juveniles and adults of females and males (p = 0.4548, p = 0.131, respectively) based on the Procrustres distance. In the dorsal view, a separation was observed between the adult females and the other groups, indicating a noticeable modification of the cephalothorax volume for the allocation of the gonads.