THE LARVAL AND POSTLARVAL DEVELOPMENT OFPARTHENOPE SERRATAREARED IN THE LABORATORY AND THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE PARTHENOPINAE (CRUSTACEA, BRACHYURA)

Abstract

According to Rathbun (1925), Parthcnope (Platylainbrus} serrata (H. Milne Edwards) has a range extending from the Bermudas, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, through the Gulf of Mexico and Bahama Islands, to Bahia, Brazil. The known substrate on which it occurs consists of sand, broken shells, gravel, corals or combinations of these. Holthuis (1959) found ovigerous females in Surinam from May to June. Williams (1965), citing the United States National Museum records, said ovigerous females have been collected during June in North Carolina, summer in Florida, and October in Cuba. SUMMARY 1. Larvae of an oxyrhynchous crab, Parthenopc (Platylambnis) serrata (H. Milne Edwards), were successfully reared in the laboratory from hatching to the second crab stage on a diet of Artcuiia nauplii. Six zoeal stages, one megalopa and the first crab stage are described and illustrated.

The first zoeal stage of <i>Parthenope macrochelos</i> (Herbst, 1790) hatched in the laboratory (Crustacea: Brachyura: Parthenopidae)

“…As a first important characteristic, the first zoea of P. macrochelos has a well developed lateral spine on each telson fork. Other described parthenopid larvae have telson forks armed with a single small dorsal spine (which is also present in P. macrochelos) and, sometimes, with a very fine lateral spine (Aikawa, 1937;Heegaard, 1963;Yang, 1971;Thiriot, 1973), with the exception of two larval forms described by Rice and Williamson (1977) from plankton samples. One of these larval forms (coded as ASM 18) has a well developed lateral spine in addition to the dorsal in its first and second stage, like in P. macrochelos, and a very small second lateral spine only in the first stage, while the larval form coded AMS 19, which was identified as a third zoeal stage, bears one long and one short lateral fork spines.…”

“…This feature has only been observed on the first zoea of Parthenope valida of the Japan seas (Aikawa, 1937), Parthenope serrata of the western Atlantic (Yang, 1971) and in the larval forms ASM 16 and ASM19 of Rice and Williamson (1977).…”

“…Several authors remark the resemblance between the zoeae of parthenopid crabs and those of some cyclometopous families and the important differences with the zoeae of the Majidae (Yang, 1971;Rice, 1980;Ingle, 1992).…”

“…The first zoea of Parthenope macrochelos possesses all the characters listed by Yang (1971) as diagnostic of the Parthenopidae. However, several additional features can help to clearly differentiate the first larval stage of P. macrochelos from the zoeae of other described Parthenopidae species (Table 1).…”

“…Rice and Williamson (1977) and Paula (1987) described a number of plankton zoeae attributed to P. massena and other unidentified parthenopid species. There is only one published account of the complete development of a parthenopid crab based on reared material: Parthenope serrata by Yang (1971 The crab was placed in an aquarium (60 x 35 x 30 cm) on board the ship containing well-aerated sea water at a salinity of approximately 37.5 ‰ and kept at 17 ± 1°C. The crab was transported to the laboratory and kept at 15 ± 1°C.…”