Active parental care, reproductive performance, and a novel egg predator affecting reproductive investment in the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus

First record of Carcinonemertes conanobrieni Simpson, Ambrosio & Baeza, 2017 (Nemertea, Carcinonemertidae), an egg predator of the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804), on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia

“…Carcinonemertes regicides Shields, Wickham & Kuris, 1989 on the red king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus (Kuris 1993), Carcinonemertes epialti Coe, 1902 on the crab Carcinus maenas (Torchin et al 1996), and Carcinonemertes errans Wickham, 1978 on the crab Cancer magister (Wickham 1979). Recent studies have revealed that an individual of P. argus that has been infected by C. conanobrieni, showed decrease in its fecundity and reproductive output (Baeza et al 2016). Our finding warns about the importance of carrying out investigations to assess the impact of this parasite on the reproductive performance of P. argus, how it affects the population of this lobster, and the implications in the artisanal fishery.…”

“…The parasite nemertean Carcinonemertes conanobrieni Simpson, Ambrosio & Baeza, 2017 was recently described from one population of the Caribbean spiny lobster P. argus in the Florida Keys and no other records have been reported to date. The parasite was infesting 7.4% of ovigerous female lobsters with densities ranging from 0.08 to 0.5 worms per 100 embryos affecting negatively the reproductive performance of the lobster (Baeza et al 2016). Herein, C. conanobrieni is reported from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia and is the first record for the Caribbean Sea.…”

“…Parasite worms can be found in different parts of the body, such as abdomen, gills, pleopods, and branchial chamber of either male or females hosts, but only reach full size and sexual maturity within the egg mass of an ovigerous female (Kuris 1993). An infestation by Carcinonemertes may cause a substantial decrease of the reproductive performance of the host (Kuris 1993, Torchin et al 1996, Baeza et al 2016.…”

Sexual Selection and Mixed Sex Expression: Adolescent Protandry, Phenotypic Tradeoffs and ‘Unconventional' Sex Allocation Estimates in a Protandric-Simultaneous Hermaphrodite

“…Thus, roaming is here considered a behavior specific to the male function. In turn, during periods of inactivity (resting), females of gonochoric crustaceans attend their brood; grooming and oxygenating embryos (Förster and Baeza, 2001;Baeza and Fernández, 2002;Baeza et al, 2016b). In L. wurdemanni, hermaphrodites almost invariably brood embryos throughout the year (Baldwin and Bauer, 2003;Baeza, 2007a) and preliminary observations demonstrated that during these periods of inactivity, brooding hermaphrodites attend their embryos intensively (embryo oxygenation through pleopod beating: mean [± sd] = 39.8 [±14.9] bouts hour −1 ; grooming embryos with cleaner claws: 104.8 [± 36.3] sec hour −1 [N = 7]).…”

Chemical sensing of microhabitat by pueruli of the reef-dwelling Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus: testing the importance of red algae, juveniles, and their interactive effect

“…Adult females can produce 2-4 clutches of eggs per year with larger, older females reproducing earlier and having more clutches per year (Maxwell et al 2009). Fecundity ranges between 100,000 and 750,000 eggs per female and increases with female body size (Baeza et al 2016). After completion of embryo development and hatching of larvae, 10 consecutive planktonic stages succeed one another (Goldstein et al 2008).…”