Two pictures of a female H. clarki. The left picture
shows the location of eye spots.
Two pictures of a female H. clarki. The left picture
shows the location of eye spots.
| In general decaopods
carry their eggs in the setae on the pleopod for several months.
The releasing of the eggs is done through a special egg molt which gets
rid of a cementing material that holds the young to the pleopods.
Hatching occurs when the animal reaches the protozoea or zoea stage.
Upon hatching the young H. clarki under go several more zoeal
stages. How many depends on the species. The zoeal stages are followed
by decapodid stage (megalopa) characterized by the appearance of a flexed
or large abdomen and the full complement of appendages. It
is finally after these stages that the animal develops adult features
and grows in to adulthood. Males are approximately 28mm long while
females are slightly larger at 31mm. The life expectancy of the
H. clarki is unknown. Not much is known about the development specifics of H. clarki. For instance, it is not known how many zoeal stages the animal under goes,or how long they live. Most of the information has to be generalized. H. clarki is known to carry eggs May through October, though the author did find two females carrying young in April. One had eggs, the other had the appearance of eye spots. For a picture of what the eggs looked like go here. |
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