Pea crabs are commercially significant parasites in the aquaculture production of bivalves in many parts of the world. However, there is scant information available on the biology of these important parasites in aquaculture. The population structure, sex ratio, and breeding status were determined for the pea crab Nepinnotheres novaezelandiae residing in a typical green-lipped mussel Perna canal...

Dinoflagellates of the genusHematodinium infect over 40 species of marine crustaceans. Since the initial description of this parasite in France in the 1930s [1], it appears to have spread globally, causing economic loss in some species, including Tanner crabs (Chionoecetes bairdi) in Alaska [2], blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the United States [3], edible crabs (Cancer pagurus) and Norway ...

Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are bled by biomedical companies for the extraction of Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate (LAL), a clotting agent used in the detection of endotoxins. In 1998, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Conunission mandated tliat all biomedical companies collecting horseshoe crabs for the production of LAL study tl1e horseshoe crab mortality rates resulting from the compan...

We used carbon stable isotopes to examine the influence of the size of saltmarsh patches on the trophic contribution of saltmarsh grass and mangroves to 2 species of resident crabs (Parasesarma erythrodactyla and Australoplax tridentata). Crabs were collected at different distances across the saltmarsh–mangrove interface at each of 10 saltmarshes of different sizes (0.01 to 8.10 ha) adjacent to...

To better understand growth and age-pigment (lipofuscin) accumulation rates of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus under natural conditions, juveniles (33 to 94 mm carapace width) were reared in outdoor ponds for over 1 yr. Growth rates, measured by carapace width, during summer and fall exceeded all those reported in the literature; the initial carapace width of 59 ± 14 mm (mean ± SD) increased ...

Foraging blue crabs must respond to fluid forces imposed on their body while acquiring useful chemical signals from turbulent odor plumes. This study examines how blue crabs manage these simultaneous demands. The drag force, and hence the cost of locomotion, experienced by blue crabs is shown to be a function of the body orientation angle relative to the flow. Rather than adopting a fixed orien...

Carcinus maenas (Green Crab) is an invasive crab species on the east and west coasts of the United States dating back to 1817. The introduction of another invasive species in 1988, Hemigrapsus sanguineus (Asian Shore Crab), has created competitive interactions between the crabs. A demographic study was conducted to compare crab populations. A total of 155 crabs were collected, 25 of which were ...

Spawning female blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, use ebb-tide transport (ETT) to migrate seaward. In estuaries with semi-diurnal tides, ETT in ovigerous blue crabs is driven by a circatidal rhythm in vertical swimming in which crabs ascend into the water column during ebb tide. The ontogeny of this rhythm was examined by monitoring swimming behavior of females before the pubertal molt, females ...

A research cruise to Hannibal Bank, a seamount and an ecological hotspot in the coastal eastern tropical Pacific Ocean off Panama, explored the zonation, biodiversity, and the ecological processes that contribute to the seamount's elevated biomass. Here we describe the spatial structure of a benthic anomuran red crab population, using submarine video and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) phot...

Mangrove crabs (Scylla serrata) were trapped in summer and fall 2004 at four sites, each in a separate municipality on the Pacific island of Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia. Carapace width (CW) of the 219 crabs averaged 15.1±0.13 cm (SE), slightly larger than the mean size of 221 crabs trapped from the same sites 4 y earlier. Mean CW of the 56 crabs in the upper quartile was 17.5±0.17 cm...