Observations of hard-shell mating in the portunid crab Charybdis japonica (A. Milne-Edwards, 1861) (Decapoda: Brachyura)

New records of Charybdis japonica (A. Milne-Edwards, 1861) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Portunidae) in the Adriatic Sea

“…Unlike most Portunid crabs, C. japonica adult females' mate in the hard-shell stage (BAKER et al, 2018;KOBAYASHI & VAZQUEZ-ARCHDALE, 2018), and store in the spermathecae viable sperms used to fertilize eggs in successive broods (WONG & SEWELL, 2015). In its native area and in New Zealand, spawning occurs in the warm season and the average fecundity is around 400,000 eggs per clutch (FOWLER & MCLEAY, 2013).…”

Transcriptomics in advancing portunid aquaculture: A systematic review

“…The mating process in portunid crabs often involves dedicated pre‐copulatory guarding, copulation between a hard‐shell male and a soft‐shell female, and subsequent postcopulatory guarding of the female, 108–110 with hard‐shell mating reported in only a few portunid crab species of the subfamily Thalamitinae 111–113 and C . japonica 110 . It is postulated that the copulation process initiates the ovarian development of some portunid crab species, such as in P .…”

“…The mating process in portunid crabs often involves dedicated precopulatory guarding, copulation between a hard-shell male and a soft-shell female, and subsequent postcopulatory guarding of the female, [108][109][110] with hard-shell mating reported in only a few portunid crab species of the subfamily Thalamitinae [111][112][113] and C. japonica. 110 It is postulated that the copulation process initiates the ovarian development of some portunid crab species, such as in P. trituberculatus. 114 Subsequent gonadal transcriptomic profiles of males and females during the mating embrace showed that genes involved in gonadal development, gametogenesis, and signal transduction were differentially expressed.…”