Complete larval development of Macrobrachium latimanus (Von Martens, 1868) (Decapoda: Caridea: Palaemonidae) described from laboratory-reared material

Abstract

Complete larval development of the mountain river prawn, Macrobrachium latimanus (Von Martens, 1868), is described and illustrated from laboratory-reared material. The larval development comprises eleven zoeal and one decapodid stages. The larval stages each are easily distinguished by the morphology of the pereiopods and/or the pleopods, and by the uropod setation. Among Japanese Macrobrachium species, the first zoeal morphology of M. latimanus is most similar to that of M. equidens (Dana, 1852), but differs in the chromatophore patterns of the third and fourth abdominal segments. The morphology and developmental pattern of the subsequent larval stages (the second to final zoeal stages) of M. latimanus and other 16 amphidromous congeners, whose larval development was previously described, are reviewed. The zoeal morphologies of Macrobrachium species can be separated into two groups by the presence/absence of pair of posterolateral spines on the fifth abdominal segments in the second to final zoeal stages. Macrobrachium latimanus belongs to the group that has no spines on the fifth abdominal segment.