In a series of three experiments, we tested the effects of short-term food variability on the larval development of Petrolisthes cabrilloi. We first reared seven sibling clutches of zoeae at 19°C in ten constant food rations (ranging 2-40 Artemia nauplii d) to determine maximal and minimal values for age and size at metamorphosis to the megalops stage. Mean age at metamorphosis ranged between 1...

I t has been demonstrated by a number of workers that the active principle of the thyroid gland in the causation of amphibian metamorphosis is iodine. Recently Swingle 1 has obtained definite proof that inorganic iodine when fed to larvm of Salientia induces metamorphosis in a short time after the be#nning of the feeding. On the other hand, it has been shown by the writer 2 that the retarding i...

Amphibian larvae respond to heterogeneous environments by varying their rates of growth and development. Several amphibian species are known to accelerate metamorphosis in response to pond drying or resource restriction. Some of the most extensive studies to date on developmental responses to pond drying have been conducted on species of spadefoot toads (family Pelobatidae). We have found that ...

In sessile marine invertebrates, larval settlement is fundamental to population maintenance and persistence. Cues contributing to the settlement choices and metamorphosis of larvae have important implications for the success of individuals and populations, but cues mediating larval settlement for many marine invertebrates are largely unknown. This study assessed larval settlement in two common ...

The nervous system of an adult moth is comprised of retained larval neurons that are remodeled during metamorphosis and a set of new adult specific neurons. The new neurons arise from a stereotyped array of stem cells (neuroblasts) that divide during larval life to generate nests of up to 100 arrested postmitotic immature neurons, the imaginal nest (IN) cells. At the onset of metamorphosis, som...

Recent molecular phylogenies suggest the surprising reacquisition of posthatching metamorphosis within an otherwise direct-developing clade of lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae). Metamorphosis was long regarded as plesiomorphic for plethodontids, yet the genus Desmognathus, which primarily includes metamorphosing species, is now nested within a much larger clade of direct-developing s...

In the pattern matching approach to imaging science, the process of “metamorphosis” is template matching with dynamical templates (Trouvé and Younes, Found. Comp. Math., 2005). Here, we recast the metamorphosis equations of that paper into the Euler-Poincaré variational framework of Holm, Marsden, and Ratiu, Adv. in Math., 1998 and show that the metamorphosis equations contain the equations for...

The ability of marine invertebrate larvae to delay their metamorphosis in the absence of adequate environmental cues has been reported for numerous sedentary and sessile species. In the present study, the effect of various substrata and the presence of conspecific adults on the metamorphosis of a mobile species, the crab Chasmagnathus granulata, was evaluated. The duration of the megalopa stage...

When the megalopa stage of estuarine crab species becomes competent for settlement and metamorphosis, it responds to specific chemical and physical cues from the adult environment. Delayed metamorphosis in the absence of such cues is beneficial insofar as it increases the probability of finding a suitable habitat, and it may also enhance the genetic exchange between separate populations. Howeve...

In organisms with complex life cycles, such as amphibians, selection is thought to have minimized the duration of metamorphosis, because this is the stage at which predation risk is presumed to be highest. Consequently, metamorphic duration is often assumed to show little if any environmentally induced plasticity, because the elevation in the extrinsic mortality risk associated with prolonging ...