The Life of CrustaceaCalman, W. T. (William Thomas)
Science
The Life of Crustacea
Calman, W. T. (William Thomas)
Crustacea
Amongst the Decapoda, instances of direct development like those just
described are exceptional, but in some of the other orders of the
Malacostraca direct development is the rule. In the great division
Peracarida, as we have already seen, the females are provided with a
pouch, or marsupium (from which the name of the division is derived), in
which the eggs are carried. Within this pouch the young undergo the
whole of their development, and they only leave it, as a rule, when they
have attained the structure of the adults. Among the more familiar
representatives of this division, the Sand-hoppers (Amphipoda), the
Woodlice (Isopoda), and the Opossum Shrimps (Mysidacea), may be
mentioned as examples of this mode of development. The Woodlice and
their immediate allies differ a little from the other members of the
division in the fact that the young leave the brood-pouch with the last
pair of legs still undeveloped, though in other respects they are like
miniature adults.
In those Crustacea which have a direct development without free-swimming
larval stages, it is sometimes possible to find traces of such stages in
the early development of the embryo. This is shown most clearly,
perhaps, in the Opossum Shrimps (Mysidacea). In these the embryo becomes
free from the egg-membrane (or may, in a sense, be said to "hatch") at a
very early stage, and lies free within the brood-pouch as a
maggot-shaped body, on which three pairs of rudimentary limbs can be
made out. The later development shows that these three rudiments
correspond to the antennules, antennæ, and mandibles, so that the
maggot-shaped embryo is, in fact, a disguised nauplius without the power
of swimming or of leading an independent existence. In other cases--as,
for instance, in the Crayfish, where the earlier stages are confined
within the egg-membrane (or "egg-shell")--the nauplius stage, although
more difficult to examine, is quite as well marked.
Of the other groups of the Malacostraca, the Syncarida and Leptostraca
are hatched in nearly the adult form, but the Stomatopoda have a long
series of larval stages. These larvæ (Fig. 32) are all distinguished by
the large size of the carapace, which in some cases envelops the greater
part of the body. Some Stomatopod larvæ, in the warmer seas, attain to a
relatively great size, sometimes exceeding 2 inches in length, and their
glass-like transparency gives them a very striking appearance.
[Illustration: FIG. 32--EARLY LARVAL STAGE OF A SPECIES OF SQUILLA,
PROBABLY _S. dubia_. × 10. (After Brooks.)]
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