In West Africa, crabs are an important natural resource for the local population due to their nutritional and economic value. Unfortunately, this resource is underexploited in Burkina Faso due to lack of knowledge. To fill this gap and encourage better exploitation of the resource, we examined the ecology of crabs in water bodies in Burkina Faso from 2022 to 2023. Crabs were collected by hand and crab net, as well as by active capture (manual collection). They were fixed in alcohol (70%), then transported to the laboratory for identification, and individual total length and body weight were measured. Additionally, key water variables were measured in situ and water samples were collected for laboratory analysis. A total of 146 crab specimens were collected. They belong to the Potamidae and are divided into two species (Potamonautes ecorssei (Marchand, 1902) and Geotelphusa schubotzi (Balss, 1914). Potamonautes ecorssei was the most abundant (86%), followed by Geotelphusa schubotzi (14%). Geothelphusa schubotz was recorded for the first time in Burkina Faso. Our results showed that the Ziga reservoir was the most diverse, and slopes values of the two species were similar (b~3.20) reflecting their positive allometric growth. The results also showed that the temperature, calcium, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, phosphate and pH were positively correlated with Potamonautes ecorssei, while dissolved oxygen, nitrate, sulphate and pH were positively correlated with Geotelphusa schubotzi, showing the importance of water variables on the qualitative and quantitative distributions of crab species. This study provided useful information on crab ecology, with new species recorded for Burkina Faso, and calls for the protection of crab habitats and the intensification of research to provide a comprehensive list of crab species, and can help in the conservation of fishery resources to increase production for the well-being of the local population in arid areas.

Diversity, crabs, arid zone, physicochemical, Burkina Faso