The existing information on the carcinofauna of Pará State is very scarce, mainly due to the lack of zoological material deposited in scientific collections. The objective was to organize and increase the scientific collection of crustaceans at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, since in November 1996 there were less than 70 lots of crustaceans mixed in the general collection of invertebrates. Part of the material deposited in the collection resulted from some collections made by several researchers of the Institution (donations), most of them as accompanying fauna to fish capture. Specific trips were made to collect carcinological material, mainly along the coast of the state. In the laboratory, all the material received appropriate treatment. The "Sistema de Gerenciamento de Coleções" (SGC), version 3.1, was used to computerize 89.5% of the collection. Currently, the collection consists of 574 lots, 22,709 specimens, 116 species, 73 genera and 40 families belonging to the Orders: Thoracica with 3 lots (0.52%), Arguloida with I (0.17%), Stomatopoda with 2 (0.35%), Amphipoda with 1 (0.17%), Isopoda with 29 (5.05%) and Decapoda with 538 (93.73%). Among the families, Grapsidae presents the highest number of genera (= 8), Palaemonidae presents the highest specific diversity (= 20) and 22 families with only one taxon. From November 1997 until now, 60 lots were added to the collection with the following growth Isopoda (3.45%) and Decapoda (12.32%), resulting in a total growth of 11.67%. Most of the lots come from the state of Pará (491 = 85.54%), besides other states: RS, SC, MT, RO, AC, AM, AP, PB and PE. The production of six scientific papers, made possible by the implementation of the Carcinological Collection of MPEG leads to the conclusion that, although small and recent, it has fundamental importance for studies of crustaceans of the Amazon Region.
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