Juvenile hatching and maternal care in Aegla uruguayana (Anomura, Aeglidae)

LÓPEZ GRECO, L.S.; VIAU, V.E.; LAVOLPE, M.; BOND-BUCKUP, G.; RODRÍGUEZ, E.M.

JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY

CRUSTACEAN SOC

Año: 2004 vol. 24 p. 309 - 313

0278-0372

Ovigerous females of Aegla uruguayana were observed in the laboratory during the egg incubation period, under controlled conditions. Juvenile hatching was characterized by a high degree of asynchrony and ranged form three to four for most females. Maternal care of juveniles was also seen. During the first day after hatching, juveniles remained living on the ventral side of abdomen of females, while during the second and third day they were able to explore the surroundings next to the female body, finally separating from her on the third or fourth day of life. No special structures in juveniles for attaching to females were seen. Both the asynchronic hatching and maternal care in A. uruguayana were in many aspects closer to the same processes observed in freshwater astacoid crayfishes than the ones observed in other anomurans, being the way in which juveniles of A. uruguayana are linked to their mothers, as well as the absence of moulting while they remain with their mothers, which are similar to processes reported for freshwater brachyuran crabs.