Lecithotrophic behaviour in zoea and megalopa larvae of the ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus siriboia Felder and Rodrigues, 1993 (Decapoda: Callianassidae)

Abstract

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.

Morphological character changes through decapodid-stage larva and juveniles in the ghost shrimp Nihonotrypaea harmandi from western Kyushu, Japan: Clues for inferring pre- and post-settlement states and processes

“…2B). The duration estimated for decapodids of N. harmandi is comparable to those values recorded for a few other callianassid species: (1) 3.0−3.5 d (Strasser and Felder, 1999a) and 4−6 d (Abrunhosa et al, 2008) for Callichirus major; (2) 4.3−6.6 d for C.…”

“…As for other callianassid decapodids, secondary lecithotrophy has been recorded only for Lepidophthalmus siriboia, which was facultative, feeding on Artemia nauplii when provided; its zoeae (up to stage III) also underwent lecithotrophic development (Abrunhosa et al, 2008).…”

“…The morphology of the decapodid was described for nine and ten species for the former and latter groups, respectively, in which no mention was made on its change with age. The duration of the decapodid stage was given for two species in the former group (Sankolli and Shenoy, 1975;Abrunhosa et al, 2005) and for two species in the latter group Felder, 2000, 1999a;Abrunhosa et al, 2008). The description of the morphology of juvenile I and its duration was given for two species (Sankolli and Shenoy, 1975;Abrunhosa et al, 2005) and one species (Abrunhosa et al, 2005), respectively.…”

Starvation of Artemia in larval rearing water affects post-larval survival and morphology of the swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus (Brachyura, Portunidae)

“…Facultative secondary lecithotrophy during the MG stage has also been reported in the brachyuran crab, Mithraculus forceps (Figueiredo et al, 2008). As the decapodid stage is a transition from the planktonic to the benthic stage, higher starvation tolerance may be a strategy to overcome the food deprivation encountered and explore suitable settlement (Abrunhosa et al, 2008;Anger, 1989Anger, , 2001bCalado et al, 2010;Figueiredo et al, 2008). Although the MG of P. trituberculatus have the ability to eat, which contributed to increase C1 somatic size in the rotifer-fed groups in experiment 1, they also exhibit more swimming (locomotion) ability and planktonic and benthic behaviour (Hamasaki, 1997;Yatsuzuka and Sakai, 1982), indicating that MG is a period to explore for settlement.…”

The Thalassinidean Mud Shrimp Upogebia vasquezi: Life Cycle and Reproductive Traits on the Amazonian Coast, Brazil

“…Despite the ecological relevance of this species in benthic communities of the mid-littoral, very little is known about its biology, especially regarding reproduction and larval development [10,[22][23][24], mostly due to its cryptic habit and difficulties in capturing specimens [25].…”