The megalopa and early juvenile development of Hepatus pudibundus (Crustacea: Brachyura: Aethroidea) reared from neuston samples

Hepatus pudibundus (Herbst, 1785) is a crab commonly found in shallow waters of the Western Atlantic. Its larval and early post-larval morphology have already been described from laboratory hatched material. Around 200 megalopae of H. pudibundus were collected in neuston samples from the Ubatuba region, Brazil, during the summer of 2005-2006 and were successfully reared under laboratory conditions. The size of the megalopae obtained in the neuston was similar to those specimens previously described in the literature, except that the juvenile crab stages reared in the laboratory were slightly larger, probably due to the better feeding conditions in the laboratory. The duration of the juvenile stages was shorter in the present study than in previous attempts at laboratory rearing, even if conditions appeared to be similar. The main differences observed between studies were in megalopal morphology, which may be attributable to intraspecific variation but, possibly, also due to differences in levels of detail than previously performed