Larvas y estadíos tempranos de desarrollo de crustáceos decápodos de Chile: Descripciones publicadas

Abstract

Larval descriptions of decapod crustaceans are essential for the understanding of life history strategies, stock-recruitment relationships, and plankton ecology. To facilitate such studies, we provide information concerning published descriptions of the early life stages of marine and freshwater decapods inhabiting Chilean waters. Publication of morphological studies on larval decapods started in Chile in 1936, and the number of such publications showed a clear peak between 1967 and 1973. Up to now, the complete larval development of 13.4% of the Chilean decapods has been described. Knowledge regarding the larval stages of caridean shrimps is extremely poor, while such information is available for 16% and 15% of the anomuran and brachyuran species reported from Chile, respectively. The absence of larval descriptions for some commercially important species affect not only the understanding of the biology of these decapods, but also complicates the development of adequate management strategies.