The Relationship Between Female Size and Egg Size in the Freshwater Crayfish Austropotamobius Torrentium

Abstract

The aim of our research was to gather information about the reproduction cycle of Austopotamobius torrentium in Croatia. The research was conducted between October 1998 and April 2000 in streams on the Medvednica Mountain (north-west Croatia). We caught 767 females, of which 92 (11.99%) were berried. Berried females were captured from the beginning of November until mid June of the following year. Total length (from the tip of the rostrum to the end of telson) of the smallest female with pleopodal eggs was 5.40 cm, while the longest was 8.70 cm. Diameter of pleopodal eggs varied from 0.24 cm to 0.34 cm (mean ± SD = 0.28 ± 0.02) and their number per female from 1 to 104. Correlations between female size (total length and weight), number of pleopodal eggs and egg diameter were done. We found positive correlation between female length and number of eggs (r = 0.46) and between female length and egg diameter (r = 0.29), as well as between female weight and egg number (r = 0.50) and female weight and egg diameter (r = 0.30). Weak positive correlation was recorded between number of eggs and their diameter (r = 0.06).Key-words: stone crayfish, Austropotamobius torrentium, fecundity, egg size. RELATION ENTRE LA TAILLE DES FEMELLES ET LEURS OEUFS CHEZ L'ÉCREVISSE AUSTROPOTAMOBIUS TORRENTIUM RÉSUMÉ

Morphometry of the stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) in the Czech Republic: allometry and sexual dimorphism

“…Moreover, females showed positive allometric abdomen width growth, whereas such a growth in males was isometric. This finding corresponds with the often demonstrated fact that a larger abdomen increases the capacity for carrying eggs, improves egg attachment and as a result increases the whole reproductive success (Grandjean et al, 1997;Maguire et al, 2002;Reynolds, 2002;Maguire et al, 2005). Although Thomas and Ingle (1971) and Lowery (1988) mentioned the positive allometry in the abdomen width only in females after reaching sexual maturity, we found, similarly to Grandjean et al (1997), that significant sexual dimorphism in abdomen width already exists before the pubertal moult.…”

“…However, most of the above mentioned studies are focused on A. pallipes and only few biometric analyses concerning A. torrentium have been performed up to now (e.g. Streissl and Hödl, 2002;Maguire et al, 2005;Sint et al, 2005;Maguire and Klobučar, 2009;Pârvulescu, 2010). Consequently, the aim of this study is to supply missing data about the morphology of the stone crayfish, including on the sexual dimorphism, and the evaluation of allometric growth of selected size parameters.…”

The Fecundity, Time of Egg Development and Juvenile Production in Spiny-Cheek Crayfish (Orconectes Limosus) Under Controlled Conditions

“…STUCKI (2002) presented the following average pleopodal fecundities per female: noble crayfish 150, stone crayfish 60, narrow-clawed crayfish 180 and signal crayfish 114 eggs per one female. MAGUIRE et al (2005) founded a mean pleopodal fecundity of 62 eggs, ranging between 30 and 104 eggs, for the stone crayfish. The big eggs losses happen during the winter incubation among these crayfish species (CELADA et al, 2005a,b), which is a significant advantage for the spiny-cheek crayfish, which carries eggs for one to two months only in spring (as described already by ANDREWS, 1907).…”

“…This suggests that the discrepancy between the two measures of fecundity is chiefly due to poor egg attachment, rather than to factors such as egg resorption or incomplete fertilisation (SAVOLAINEN et al, 1996;REYNOLDS, 2002). Both ovarian and pleopodal fecundity correlated with female size (STYPIŃSKA, 1973;SAVOLAINEN et al, 1996;AUSTIN, 1998a;SCHULZ and ŚMIETANA, 2001;HARLIOĞLU et al, 2004;MAZLUM and EVERSOLE, 2004;NAKATA and GOSHIMA, 2004;HUBER and SCHUBART, 2005;MAGUIRE et al, 2005), but the relationship between the egg number and body size was strongly influenced by environmental conditions (REYNOLDS, 2002). Different authors evaluated the pleopodal fecundity just after ovulation (ABRAHAMSSON, 1971;AUSTIN, 1998a,b;LEONARD et al, 2001;NAKATA and GOSHIMA, 2004;CELADA et al, 2005a;SÁEZ-ROYUELA, 2005), during incubation (JONES, 1995;LEWIS and HORTON, 1997;MAZLUM and EVERSOLE, 2004;CELADA et al, 2005a,b;SÁEZ-ROYUELA, 2005) or just before hatching (SÖDERBÄCK, 1995;SAVOLAINEN et al, 1996;CELADA et al, 2005b;SÁEZ-ROYUELA et al, 2005).…”

Reproduction in the threatened crayfishAustropotamobius pallipes(Decapoda, Astacidae) in the Licenza brook basin (central Italy)

“…Significant relation was also found between egg size and mother size, differently by the study of Sàez-Royuela et al (2006), but not between egg size and embryonic stages. However, Woodlock and Reynolds (1988a) showed that larger females have bigger eggs and that is also the case in A. torrentium (Maguire et al 2004).…”