The relative growth of Panulirus phyllosoma larvae in Japanese Waters.

Abstract

Examination of relative growth of cephalic shield length, cephalic shield width, thorax width and abdomen length to body length revealed the occurrence of six forms of Panulirus phyllosoma, five known and one undescribed, in Japanese waters. These forms were identified as follows: Oshima's form F, which has been proposed as P. japonicus, is identical with this species and includes P. longipes which has close affinity to P. japonicus. Murano's form C is identified as P. penicillatas. Murano's form D and the authors form D' may correspond to P. versicolor and P. ornatus, re spectively. Oshima's form E is suggested to be P, homarus. Because of the samall number of specimens and limited information on the morphological characteritics of P. homarus group, the specific identification of forms D, D' and E is tentative. Specific allocation of form B still remains to be investigate. Relative growth seems to be a useful method for the identification and clas sification of palinurid phyllosoma. Johnson8,9) 1(P. l.)*1 6(P. p.)*2 1(P. v.)*3 5(P. o.)*4 13 Total 70 5 28 13 8 190

The complete development and morphological changes of larval Panulirus longipes (Decapoda, Palinuridae) under laboratory conditions

“…In the seas surrounding Japan, phyllosoma larvae regarded as P. longipes or P. japonicus have been collected by several workers. 32–35 Oshima reported two forms (forms E and F) of phyllosoma larvae of Panulirus . 32 Thereafter, Murano described five forms (forms A–E) of late‐stage Panulirus larvae.…”

Molecular Species Identification of Spiny Lobster Phyllosoma Larvae of the Genus Panulirus from the Northwestern Pacific

“…Following Gurney's description (1936), Oshima (1942) reported that two Forms (E and F) occur in Japanese waters. Later, Murano (1971) observed five Forms (A to E) of late-stage phyllosoma larvae of Panulirus in waters adjacent to Japan and suggested his Form A corresponded to Oshima's Form F. Murano (1971), and subsequently Nonaka et al (1989) suggested that phyllosoma larvae of P. japonicus and P. longipes both belong to Form A, but exact species identification was not possible. Sekiguchi (1986) proposed that late stage phyllosoma larvae of P. japonicus and P. longipes can be discriminated by the ratio of cephalic shield and thorax widths.…”

Palinurid phyllosoma larvae and their distribution in winter off the Pacific coast of Japan

“…In the Japanese spiny lobster, Panulirus japonicas (Decapoda, Palinuridae), rearing experiments in the laboratory have shown that metamorphosis to the post larval stage occurs between 231 and 417 days after hatching.2,3,4} However, this long larval life has not yet been proved in the ocean, because the number of captured wild phyllosoma larvae around Japan is not large and serial growth data on wild larvae have not yet been published Among 5 forms (A-E) of palinurid larvae captured around Japan,) Form A is thought to be P. japonicus. 6) Although 127 Form A larvae with body lengths exceeding 20 mm have been captured hitherto,) far fewer young stages smaller than 20 mm long have been caught, with the exception of new hatchlings s) Moreover, late-stage phyllosoma of the P. japonicas group may be morphologically similar 6,9) and Matsu da. and Yamakawar10) found no morphological differences between P. japonicas and P. longipes larvae reared in the laboratory.…”