This species inhabits sandy bottoms, and is also found hidden in rocky crevices (Tavares et al. 2009) at depths of 30-300 m. This nocturnal species shelters during the day and forages at night feeding mainly on bivalves (Lavalli et al. 2007).

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Red List Criteria

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Justification

There is very little population information available for this species. Nomura and Fausto Filho (1968) described this species as abundant in north and northeast Brazil, but there is no recent data to confirm whether this is still the case. Considering the volumes which have been harvested since 2000 (see Tavares et al. 2009), it is likely that this species is abundant. However, it is unknown what affect harvesting is having on this species' population.

Unknown

The harvesting of this species is likely to be its greatest threat, though this is unlikely to be a major threat at this time as it is taken as incidental catch rather than forming a targeted fishery.

There is unlikely to be a trap fishery for this species as they do not often go into traps. In a study in Florida in 2000, twenty thousand traps were set for a season - 150 individuals were caught.

To ensure that this species does not become over-harvested, a management strategy needs to be implemented. Since this species is mainly a by-catch component of demersal trawling, limiting effort or setting mesh size limits may not be a suitable strategy. Minimum legal size limits (MLS) would be preferable as undersized lobsters can then be returned alive to the water. Oliveira et al. (2008) report that the functional maturity of this species occurs at a carapace length (CL) of 8.5 cm, and mean fecundity was related to a mean CL of 9.5 cm. They suggest a size of 9 cm CL as the female MLS. In their study they also ascertained that the breeding period of this species is seasonal, and therefore recommend that the capture of this species should be prohibited from November to January, when they found that the percentage of ovigerous females was greater than 50% (Oliveira et al. 2008).

Further research is recommended to give an indicator of the species' current abundance, and monitoring should be ongoing to ensure that harvesting is not having a deleterious affect on this species' survival.

A decline in global captures of Scyllaridae has been documented, although information on specific species is lacking (Spanier and Lavalli 2007). Further research is necessary to determine the impact that global harvesting is having on specific species, and to clarify if the documented decline is due to reduced populations or simply reduced effort.