Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-22T13:37:56.460Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rhythms of larval release in the shore crab Carcinus maenas (Decapoda: Brachyura)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2009

Chaoshu Zeng  and
Ernest Naylor
Chaoshu Zeng
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5EY
Ernest Naylor
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5EY
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The process of larval release in field collected ovigerous Carcinus maenas was monitored in the laboratory using a time-lapse video recorder. Under constant light (L:L) and simulated natural light/dark cycles (L:D), larval release normally occurred in two or more main events at about daily and/or tidal intervals. Since larval release in the crab was expressed with circadian and circatidal periodicity in continuous light and in the absence of tidal cues, it suggests involvement of endogenous timing. Crabs showing daily larval release rhythms released larvae at various times of the day in L:L. In contrast, under simulated L:D cycles, 37 out of 38 crabs released larvae during the dark phase, suggesting nocturnal release of larvae in the crab under natural conditions. Larval release from freshly collected females which shed larvae within two days of collection occurred predominantly around the times of expected nocturnal high tide. When both local semidiurnal high tides occurred in daylight during long summer days, larval release appeared to start 2–3 h earlier than the expected morning high tide, before the onset of daylight. Larval release at the time around high tide, linked to a previously described larval tidal migration rhythm of ebb-phased upward swimming, is likely to have been selected for by enhancing the larval offshore dispersal process. Nocturnal larval release is probably adaptive in the avoidance of visual predators by ovigerous females as they release larvae.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , May 1997 , pp. 451 - 461
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkinson, R.J.A. & Parsons, A.J., 1973. Seasonal patterns of migration and locomotor rhythmicity in populations of Carcinus maenas. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 7, 81–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergin, M.E., 1981. Hatching rhythms in Uca pugilator (Decapoda: Brachyura). Marine Biology, 63, 151–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boolootian, R.A., Giese, A.C., Farmanfarmaian, A. & Tucker, J., 1959. Reproductive cycles of five west coast crabs. Physiological Zoology, 32, 213–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, S.K. & Loveland, R.E., 1985. A calibration method to generate seasonal hatching profiles for the fiddler crabs Uca pugnax (Smith, 1870) and Uca minax (LeConte, 1855) (Decapoda: Brachyura). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 90, 27–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandford, J.R., 1978. The influence of daylength, temperature and season on the hatching rhythm of Homarus gammarus. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of United Kingdom, 58, 639–658.Google Scholar
Broekhuysen, G.J. Jr 1936. On development, growth and distribution of Carcinides maenas (L.). Archives Néerlandaises de Zoologie, 2, 257–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christy, J.H., 1978. Adaptive significance of reproductive cycles in the fiddler crab Uca pugilator: a hypothesis. Science, New york, 199, 453–456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christy, J.H., 1982. Adaptive significance of semilunar cycles of larval release in fiddler crabs (genus Uca): test of an hypothesis. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 163, 251–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christy, J.H., 1986. Timing of larval release by intertidal crabs on an exposed shore. Bulletin of Marine Science, 39, 176–191.Google Scholar
DeCoursey, P.J., 1979. Eggs hatching rhythms in three species of fiddler crabs. In Cyclic phenomena in plants and animals. Proceedings of the 13th European Marine Biological Symposium, Isle of Man, 27 September–4 October, 1978 (ed. Naylor, E. and Harrnoll, R.G.), pp. 399–06. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
DeCoursey, P.J., 1983. Biological timing. In The biology of Crustacea, vol. 7 (ed. Bliss, D.E. and Mantele, L.H.), pp. 107–162. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
De Vries, M.C. & Forward, R.B. Jr 1989. Rhythms in larval release of the sublittoral crab Neopanope sayi and the supralittoral crab Sesarma cinereum (Decapoda: Brachyura). Marine Biology, 100, 241–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, M.C. & Forward, R.B. Jr 1991a. Control of egg-hatching time in crabs from different tidal heights. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 11, 29–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, M.C. & Forward, R.B. Jr 1991b. Mechanisms of crustacean egg hatching: evidence for enzyme release by crab embryos. Marine Biology, 110, 281–291.Google Scholar
Ennis, G.P., 1973. Endogenous rhythmicity associated with larval hatching in the lobster Homarus gammarus. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 53, 531–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ennis, G.P., 1975. Observations on hatching and larval release in the lobster Homarus americanus. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 32, 2210–2213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forward, R.B. Jr 1987. Larval release rhythms of decapod crustaceans: an overview. Bulletin of Marine Science, 41, 165–176.Google Scholar
Forward, R.B. Jr & Lohmann, K.J., 1983. Control of egg hatching in the crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Gould). Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 165, 154–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forward, R.B. Jr, Lohmann, K. & Cronin, T.W., 1982. Rhythms in larval release by an estuarine crab (Rhithropanopeus harrisii). Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 163, 287–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moller, T.H. & Brandford, J.R., 1979. A circadian hatching rhythm in Nephrops norvegicus (Crustacea: Decapoda). In Cyclic phenomena in marine plants and animals. Proceedings of the 13th European Marine Biological Symposium, Isle of Man, 27 September-4 October, 1978 (ed. Naylor, E. and Hartnoll, R.G.), pp. 391–397. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, S.G., 1995. The timing of larval release. In Ecology of marine invertebrate larvae (ed. McEdward, L.), pp. 157–191. Boca Raton: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, S.G. & Christy, J.D., 1994. Plasticity, constraint, and optimality in reproductive timing. Ecology, 71, 1639–1652.Google Scholar
Morgan, S.G. & Christy, J.D., 1995. Adaptive significance of the timing of larval release by crabs. American Naturalist, 145, 457–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naylor, E., 1958. Tidal and diurnal rhythms of locomotor activity in Carcinus maenas. Journal of Experimental Biology, 35, 602–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paula, J., 1989. Rhythms of larval release of decapod crustaceans in the Mira Estuary, Portugal. Marine Biology, 100, 309–312.Google Scholar
Queiroga, H., Costlow, J.D. & Moreira, M.H., 1994. Larval abundance patterns of Carcinus maenas (Decapoda, Brachyura) in Canal de Mira (Ria de Aveiro, Portugal). Marine Ecology Progress Series, 111, 63–72.Google Scholar
Saigusa, M., 1981. Adaptive significance of a semilunar rhythms in the terrestrial crab Sesarma. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 160, 311–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saigusa, M., 1982. Larval release rhythm coinciding with solar day and tidal cycles in the terrestrial crab Sesarma - harmony with the semilunar timing and its adaptive significance. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 162, 371–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saigusa, M. & Hidaka, T., 1978. Semilunar rhythms in zoea-release activity if the land crab Sesarma. Oecologia, 37, 163–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, M., Seiple, W.H. & Morgan, S.G., 1986. Hatching rhythms of fiddler crabs and associated species at Beaufort, North Carolina. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 6, 24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherwin, T.J., 1993. Menai Strait tide tables 1993. Bangor: Marine Science Laboratories, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Sherwin, T.J., 1994. Menai Strait tide tables 1994. Bangor: Marine Science Laboratories, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Zeng, C. 1996. Behavioural basis of larval dynamics in the cra Carinus maenas. PhD thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Zeng, C. & Naylor, E., 1996a. Endogenous tidal rhythms of vertical migration in field collected zoea-1 larvae of the shore crab Carcinus maenas: implications for ebbtide offshore dispersal. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 132, 71–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeng, C. & Naylor, E., 1996b. Synchronization of endogenous tidal vertical migration rhythms in laboratory-hatched larvae of the crab Carcinus maenas. Journal of Experimental Marine Biological and Ecology, 198, 269–289.Google Scholar
Zeng, C. & Naylor, E., 1996c. Heritability of circatidal vertical migration rhythms in zoea larvae of the crab Carcinus maenas. Journal of Experimental Marine Biological and Ecology, 202, 239–257.Google Scholar