The Reproductive Strategy of Hermit Crabs in Temperate Waters
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The Reproductive Strategy of Hermit Crabs in Temperate Waters E. S. Kornienko* Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, 690041 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] Received January 27, 2020; revised March 25, 2020; accepted March 27, 2020
Abstract—This review examines the main characteristics of the reproductive strategy in hermit crabs: the sex ratio, the age (size) of onset of maturity, fecundity, and duration of the incubation period, as well as their dependence on the availability and quality of accessible gastropod shells. The latitudinal variation in reproductive characteristics and the peculiarities of reproduction of coastal hermit crabs in temperate waters are discussed. Keywords: Paguroidea, sex ratio, age of onset of maturity, fecundity, incubation period, embryonic diapause DOI: 10.1134/S1063074020050053
INTRODUCTION The life cycle of a species often depends on the breeding strategy that determines its population dynamics, age composition, and sex ratio. The reproductive strategy influences the characteristics of species, such as the distribution range and longevity [3]. In temperate latitudes, marine organisms exhibit seasonality of reproduction in accordance with the cyclic pattern of water temperature and the duration of daylight hours. It is thought that this leads to a synchronization of the peak of larval release with the period of highest food availability in the pelagic environment [13]. The term “strategy” describes a basic set of characteristics of behavior or the development cycle. The life-history strategies are traditionally divided into two groups: the R-strategy (early maturity, a large number of offspring, absence of parental care, and a high reproductive effort) and the K-strategy (delayed maturation, a small number of offspring, parental care, low reproductive effort). The strategy of each species is a compromise between the two extreme patterns [7, 71]. A distinctive feature of decapods of the suborder Pleocyemata, which includes hermit crabs (Anomura, Paguroidea), is the care of offspring; their females brood eggs on their pleopods until larvae hatch (usually at the zoeal stage). In some species, females carry young crabs under the pleon until the juvenile stage is reached [22, 44, 74, 83, 90, 91]. Among hermit crabs, extended parental care is only known for one member of the genus Calcinus that has a small number of eggs in the clutch and has an abbreviated development. Larvae of this hermit crab hatch from the egg envelopes at the late stage of the zoea and remain in the female’s shell, molting into the megalopa, then into
the first juvenile stage, and they leave the shell only after that [27]. The main feature of the morphology of hermit crabs is a soft, uncalcified abdomen. Paguroidea species usually reside in empty gastropod shells to protect the abdomen. Representatives of some species occupy bivalve and scaphopod shells; some species are known to inhabit attached shells of vermetid gastropods or
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