Larval Development Of Pagurus Longicarpus Say Reared In The Laboratory. V. Effect Of Diet On Survival And Molting

During the last several decades, papers too numerous to list here have been published describing larval stages of decapod crustaceans reared in the laboratory. Through this work techniques for rearing these larvae have become standardized, making a variety of physiological amid ecological experiments possible (for example, Costlow, 1961, 1964, 1966, 1967 ; Costlow and Bookhout, 1968 ; Roberts, 1971a, 1971b). Yet relatively little is known about the nutritional requirements of decapod larvae. Lebour ( 1922) performed a limited number of stomach content analyses on planktonic zoeae and reported that decapod larvae are principally phytophagous. Subsequent laboratory study led her to conclude that, contrary to her first report, many decapod larvae are actually carnivorous and that diatoms and other phyto plankters observed in stomach content analyses were ingested adventitiously (Lebour, 1927;Gurney, 1942). Hart (1935,1937) and Sandoz and Rogers (1944) in their early efforts to culture decapod larvae simply concentrated plankton and isolated desirable (or plentiful) components to feed to larvae. Through these and other studies, it has been verified that many decapod larvae require animal material in their diet, although it was suggested that Cat!inectes sapidus may utilize a dinoflagellate (Sandoz and Rogers, 1944)