Larval development to the ninth zoeal stage of Heterocarpus abulbus Yang, Chan and Chu, 2010 (Decapoda: Caridea: Pandalidae), a deep-water shrimp with high fishery potential

Abstract

The morphology of the first nine zoeal stages of the upper-bathyal caridean shrimp Heterocarpus abulbus Yang, Chan and Chu, 2010 are described and illustrated in detail from laboratory-hatched material. In comparison with previous studies of Heterocarpus larvae, an important progress in larval rearing was achieved, with the larvae surviving in the laboratory for 25 days. Although some adult characters had started to develop, the absence of pleopods at the zoea IX suggests that H. abulbus has an extended planktonic larval phase that likely consists of at least 11 zoeal stages. The larvae of H. abulbus can be readily distinguished from other known Heterocarpus zoeae by the large size of their zoea I and for having four instead of three setae on the first segment of the endopod of the second maxilliped in zoea II and subsequent stages.