Crustacean Larvae – Academic Script

Course Name: Zoology

1st Year Undergraduate
Model 1 UGC Syllabus

Paper No. & Title: Z 101 B

Animal Diversity-1

Topic No. & Title: Topic-10

Arthropoda
Crustacean Larvae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Academic Script: -

Introduction:

Crustaceans, Crustacea, formerly called Remipedia, form a

very large and diversified group of arthropods, which includes 52,000
described species. It is not wrong to give this a separate rank of
subphylum. It includes known animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish,
shrimp, krill and barnacles ranging in size from 0.1 mm to the
Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 3.8 m and a mass of 20
kg. Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they
moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods,
such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates, by the possession of
biramous limbs, and by the nauplius form of the larvae.

Crustaceans exhibit a number of larval forms, of which the earliest

and most characteristic is the nauplius. Several larval forms are met
within Crustaceans and specified terms are applied to each one of them.

Characteristics:

Mainly crustaceans are free-living aquatic animals, but some are

terrestrial, for example, woodlice, also parasitic, for example,
Rhizocephala, fish lice and tongue worms, and sessile for example,
barnacles, forms are seen. The group has an extensive fossil record,
dating back to the Cambrian, and includes living fossils such as Triops,
which has existed apparently unchanged since the Triassic period. More
than 10 million tons of crustaceans are produced by fishery or farming
for human consumption, the majority of it being shrimps and prawns.
Krill and copepods are not as widely fished, but form the greatest
biomass on the planet. The scientific study of crustaceans is known as
carcinology, alternatively, malacostracology, crustaceology or
crustalogy, and a scientist who works in carcinology is a carcinologist.

Crustaceans show both direct and indirect development. In most

crustacea, development is accompanied by little or more
metamorphosis and the various stages of development are known as
larvae. This is because the eggs are loaded with very little amount of
yolk, microlecithal eggs. Crustaceans may pass through a number of
larval and immature stages between hatching from their eggs and
reaching their adult form. Each of the stage is separated by a moult, in
which the hard exoskeleton is shed off to allow the animal to grow. The
larva of crustaceans often bears little resemblance to the adult, and
there are still cases where it is not known what larvae will grow into
what adults. This is especially true of crustaceans which live as benthic
adults on the sea bed, but where the larvae are planktonic and
therefore more easily caught. Also all crustaceans show a marked
transition in morphology during metamorphosis. Radical change in
morphology is linked to the loss or gain of distinctive features that mark
a change in mode of life. A change in lifestyle during development has
significance in terms of evolutionary pressure, as the crustaceans could
pass through several ecological niches on the way to adult development
and changes would strongly affect survivorship and dispersal.

Many crustacean larvae were not immediately recognized as larvae

when they were discovered, and were described as new genera and
species. The names of these genera have become generalized to cover
specific larval stages across wide groups of crustaceans, such as zoea
and nauplius. Other terms described forms which are only found in
particular groups, such as the glaucothoe of hermit crabs, or the
phyllosoma of slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters.

Life cycle

At its most complete, a crustacean's life cycle begins with an egg, which
is usually fertilized. This egg hatches into a pre-larva and then through
a series of moults, the young animal passes through various stages,
followed by post-larva. This is followed by metamorphosis into an
immature form, which broadly resembles the adult, and after further
moults, the adult form is finally reached. Some crustaceans continue to
moult as adults, while for others, the development of gonads signals the
final moult.

History of the study of crustacean larva

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to observe the difference
between larval crustaceans and the adults when he watched the eggs of
Cyclops hatching in 1699. Despite this, and other observations over the
following decades, there was a controversy among scientists about
whether or not metamorphosis occurred in crustaceans, with conflicting
observations presented, based on different species, some of which went
through a metamorphosis, and some of which did not. This controversy
persisted until the 1840s, and the first descriptions of a complete series
of larval forms were not published until the 1870s.

Crustacean larvae can be studied under different heads:-

1. NAUPLIUS

1. The simplest, commonest and earliest larval form in crustacea.

2. It is a microscopic, oval or pear shaped with an unsegmented body
having a broad anterior head region, an intermediate trunk and a
posterior bilobed anal region.
3. It has 3 pairs of unjointed appendages bearing seate for
swimming.
4. The first pair is uniramous and becomes the antennules of the
adult.
5. Second is antennary and third is mandibular to become the
respective parts of the adult.
6. The head region bears a noticeable sessile median eye.
7. The mouths open anteriorly between the bases of antennary and
mandibular feet.
8. The anus lies at the extremity of the caudal region.
9. The alimentary canal is straight and made of foregut, midgut and
hindgut.
10. However mouth and alimentary canal are lacking in nauplius of
Cirripedia.
11. The larva is without a heart and has a segmented ventral nerve
cord.

2. METANAUPLIUS
1. It is indistinctly defined stage following the nauplius.
2. It consist an oval cephalothorax, an elongated trunk-region and an
abdomen terminating in a caudal fork provided with setae.
 3. Dorsal shield of the head grows back to form the carapace.
4. In addition to the basic appendages of nauplius, it also develops
the rudiments of four pairs of appendages, which become the
maxillulae the maxillae and first two pairs of maxillipedes of the
adult.
5. Branchiopoda, Cephalocardia and perhaps some Stomatopoda
hatch at this stage.

3. CYPRIS
1. In some Cirripedia like Lepas, the nauplius passes into the cypris,
meaning mussel stage, in which the body and the appendages are
enclosed within bivalved carapace with an adductor muscle to close
it.
2. Its modified antennules have cement glands situated at their
bases.
3. It undergoes a remarkable series of metamorphoses to become the
sessile adult form.
4. Ostracods eggs typically hatch in the cypris form.

4. KENTROGEN LARVAE
1. It is the larva of sacculina an exclusive parasite of crab.
2. It is attached to the body of the host crab.
3. It looks like a sac covered with a cuticle.
4. The bag encloses a mass of germ cells.
5. The larva has a chitinous tube called dart.
 6. At a later stage the dart pierces through the body of the crab and
the germ cells of the larva pass into the body of the host.
7. Inside the host crab the kentrogen develops into the next larva
sacculina interna.
8. It ultimately develops rhizoids and matures to adult parasitic
sacculina.

5. PROTOZOEA

1. The metanauplius larva is succeeded by the protozoaea stage with

seven pairs of appendages and the beginning of segmentation.
2. The carapace become enlarged and covers the dorsal surface
anteriorly.
3. The seven pairs of appendages present in the metanauplius, up to
2nd maxillipede, become well-developed and capable of
movements.
4. The rudiments of paired lateral eye begin to appear near the
median eye.
5. The rudiments of the remaining posterior six thoracic segments
are also marked off, but the abdomen still remains unsegmented
and limbless.
6. The protozoaea swims by antennae.
7. Penaeus hatch in the protozoaea stage.

6. ZOEA
1. Zoea is the second important larvae of the Crustacea, the first
being the nauplius.
2. Protozoaea stage is succeeded by the zoaea stage characterized
with a distinct cephalothorax and abdomen, eight pair of
appendages and buds of six more, it looks like adult Cyclops.
3. The cephalothorax is highly developed and covered by a helmet-
like carapace, which is produced into two long spines, an anterior
median rostral and a posterior median dorsal. Sometimes two
lateral spines are also present.
4. The paired lateral and stalked compound eyes become well
formed.
5. The long abdomen is clearly made of six segments, and terminates
in a caudal fork.
6. Abdomen still lacks appendages and hence larvae swim by means
of thoracic limbs.

7. METAZOEA
1. Metazoea is the older zoea and has well formed third maxillipedes,
which are biramous and swimming organs in Anomura, but
uniramous and non-swimming in Brachyura.
2. The six pairs of abdominal appendages also appear in the form of
buds.

8. CALYPTOSIS
1. In Euphausiacea, one of the larval stages is termed calyptopsis.
It is similar in all respects to a typical zoea except that the paired
eyes are not stalked but sessile.
9. ERICHTHUS
1. Such larvae are met with in Lysiosquilla and have
characteristically a carapace that covers the greater part of the
body.
2. Head is unsegmented, bearing median and paired eyes and all the
five pairs of cephalic appendages.
3. The thorax is made up of segments, free from the carapace, and
bearing anterior five pairs of biramous swimming appendages.
4. The broad abdomen is unsegmented and with a single pair of
appendages.

10. ALIMA
1. The so-called alima larva of Squilla which hatch out from the egg
directly, is a modified zoea.
2. Being pelagic and having a glass-like transparency it occurs in
large numbers in the plankton.
3. It has a slender form, and a sort and broad carapace.
4. All the head appendages are present.
5. Abdomen is six-segmented, having 4 or 5 pairs of pleopods i.e.
swiming legs.
6. The alima larva differs from the zoea larva in the armature of the
telson and a very large raptorial second maxillipede.

11. MEGALOPA
1. All the true crabs with the zoaea larva or metazoaea passing
through successive moults develop into the post larval megalopa
stage.
 2. It has a broad and a crab like unsegmented cephalothorax.
3. The carapace is produced anteriorly into a median spine.
4. The eyes are large, stalked and compound.
5. All the thoracic appendages are well formed of which the last five
pairs uniramous.
6. The abdomen is also well formed, straight and bears biramous
pleopods.

12. GLAUCOTHOE
1. In hermit crabs, the metazoea leads to the glaucothoe stage.
2. It corresponds to the megalopa stage of Bracchyura with a large
symmetrical abdomen and a full complement of adult appendages.

13. MYSIS
1. In Penaeus, the zoea, instead of converting into the megalopa
stage, moults into the postlarval mysis larva within thirteen pairs
of appendages.
2. All thoracic appendages are biramous.
3. Even the five pairs of posterior thoracic legs are biramous with
flagellar exopodites which take up the locomotory function(Which
is chiefly by the antennae in other larvae.)
4. The abdomen develops similar to that of the adult form, with five
pairs of biramous pleopods and a pair of uropods and telson.
5. The mysis larva metamorphoses in to the adult prawn, by losing
the exopodites of the thoracic legs.
 14. PHYLLOSOMA
1. It is the newly hatched larva of the rock- lobster, Palinurus, it is
also called glass- crab and is a greatly modified mysis stage.
2. It is a remarkable for its large size, extremely flattened and a leaf-
like delicate form and glassy transparency.
3. A narrow constriction demarcates the head from the thorax.
4. A large oval carapace covers the head and the first two thoracic
segments.
5. The eyes are largely stalked and compound.
6. Only anterior six pairs of thoracic appendages are present in the
newly hatched larva.
7. The first thoracic appendages or maxillipedes are rudimentary in
case of Palinurus or absent in case of Scyllarus.
8. The second are uniramous and succeeded by four pairs of very
long biramous legs with notary exopodites.
9. Last two pairs of thoracic appendages are usually absent.
10. Abdomen, though indistinctly segmented is very small and
limbless.
11. Phyllosoma undergoes several moults before reaching the adult
form.

SUMMARY

Crustaceans show both direct and indirect development and may

pass through a number of larval and immature stages between hatching
from their eggs and reaching their adult form. In most crustacea,
development is accompanied by little or more metamorphosis and the
various stages of development are known as larvae. They are nauplius,
metanauplius, cypris, kentrogen, protozoea, zoea, metazoea, calyptosis,
erichthus, alima, megalopa, glaucothoea, mysis and phyllosoma. Each
of the stages is separated by a moult, in which the hard exoskeleton is
shed to allow the animal to grow. Most larvae of crustaceans often bear
little resemblance to the adult. All crustaceans show a marked transition
in morphology during metamorphosis. Drastic change in the morphology
is linked to the loss or gain of distinctive features that mark a change in
mode of life. This change in lifestyle during development has
significance in terms of evolutionary pressure, as the crustaceans could
pass through several ecological niches on the way to adult development
and changes would strongly affect survivorship and dispersal.