Food supply is considered critical for a successful culturing of decapod larvae. However, some species may present yolk reserve sufficient to complete their larval development without external food supply (known as lecithotrophic larval development). In the present study, two experiments were carried out in order to verify whether the callianassid Lepidophthalmus siriboia have lecithotrophic behaviour or, if they need external food for their larval development: Experiment 1, larvae submitted to an initial feeding period and Experiment 2, larvae submitted to an initial starvation period. High survival rate was observed in both experiments, in which only 2 megalopae and 1 zoea III died. These results strongly suggest that larvae of L. siriboia are lecithotrophic as they have sufficiently large yolk reserve to complete their larval development, while the megalopa stage shows facultative lecithotrophy. The larval periods of each stage of the treatments were quite similar and, despite some significant differences in some larval periods, these can be related probably to larval rearing conditions, abiotic factors or, individual variability of larval health, as well as stress caused to the ovigerous females during embryogenesis.
The present study investigated whether the callianassid Callichirus major shows a lecithotrophic behaviour during larval development. Two experiments were carried out. In the first experiment, larvae were subjected to an initial period of feeding, while in the second they were subjected to an initial period of starvation. In Experiment 1, 80% of C. major larvae succeeded moulting to juvenile stage in treatment with larvae fed every day. In the treatments with larvae fed for 1, 2 and 3 days there was total mortality before they reached the megalopal stage. In Experiment 2, zoea larvae showed more resistance when subjected to an initial period of starvation in which larvae starved for 1, 2 and 3 days and had survival rates of 100, 60 and 80%, respectively. But, a delay in the development duration of the zoeal stages was observed. Total mortality was observed for larvae reared in the treatment with entire starvation. The results suggest that zoeal stages of C. major are not lecithotrophic.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.