THE MEGALOPA STAGE OF THE GULF STONE CRAB, MENIPPE ADINA WILLIAMS AND FELDER, 1986, WITH A COMPARISON OF MEGALOPAE IN THE GENUS MENIPPE

The laboratory-reared megalopa stage of the Gulf stone crab, Menippe adina, is described and illus-trated and compared with megalopae of three other species of Menippe. The megalopa of M. adina differs from that of M. nodifrons in having serrate spines on the ventral margin of the dactylus of pereiopod 5 and from that of M, rumphii in having spines on the dactyli of pereiopods 2-5 and a more quadrate carapace. The megalopa of the morphologically similar M. mercenaria was also reared in the laboratory, and selected characters are described and compared with the megalopa of M. adina; megalopae of the two species differ only slightly. Megalopae of iW. adina taken from field collections made off South Texas, U.S.A., were compared with and were found to be consistent with laboratory-reared M. adina megalopae. Stone crabs of the genus Menippe are large xan-thid crabs common along the eastern coasts of the United States and Mexico from North Carolina t