. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. white yellow orange spent white post- inter- pre- post- &resorbed Ovarian Stages Moulting Stages FIGURE 2. A. Ovarian stage and shell color. B. Molting stages and shell color. Post- molt, intermolt and premolt are here defined in the same way as in Figure 1. Green ...... ; yellow - - ; orange-red - — . aquarium, they usually acquired bright golden yellow, or less often, brownish color, on the underside. The reason for such different color-changing in the smaller crabs is not yet understood. DISCUSSION It was mentioned ab
. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. white yellow orange spent white post- inter- pre- post- &resorbed Ovarian Stages Moulting Stages FIGURE 2. A. Ovarian stage and shell color. B. Molting stages and shell color. Post- molt, intermolt and premolt are here defined in the same way as in Figure 1. Green ...... ; yellow - - ; orange-red - — . aquarium, they usually acquired bright golden yellow, or less often, brownish color, on the underside. The reason for such different color-changing in the smaller crabs is not yet understood. DISCUSSION It was mentioned above that the present method of collection excluded non- feeding crabs around molting time. If, then, those characteristics discussed here did not bias the sampling by trapping, then we may make the following conclusion. The three cycles, ovarian maturation, molting, and color change, are apparently under different hormonal control in Carclnus since any combination of their stages could occur, though correlation between certain stages of the different cycles is found. Such correlations support, in general, the conclusions of Demeusy and Lenel (1954), and of Demeusy (1963), that the ovarian and molting principles are antagonistic to each other in Carclnus, that egg-laying takes place when the crabs are at their intermolt stage, and that molting occurs mostly after the spent stage. The present observations show that, in nature, this antagonism may not always be effective. For example, a molting crab with full-size mature orange ovary was recorded twice during the study. The color in the shell is undoubtedly the result of biochemical transformations during the metabolism of carotenoids, as indicated by previous workers (Lenel and Veillet, 1951, etc.). These authors have demonstrated that removal of the eyestalks from freshly molted Carclnus resulted in a marked reddening, affecting the new cuticle as well as the epidermal chromatophores. According to them,. Please note that these
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlilliefrankrat, booksubjectbiology, booksubjectzoology
