Research Article |
Corresponding author: Juan Carlos Azofeifa-Solano ( eazofeifa2@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Raymond Bauer
© 2014 Juan Carlos Azofeifa-Solano, Marcelo Elizondo-Coto, Ingo Wehrtmann.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Azofeifa-Solano JC, Elizondo-Coto M, Wehrtmann IS (2014) Reproductive biology of the sea anemone shrimp Periclimenes rathbunae (Caridea, Palaemonidae, Pontoniinae), from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. In: Wehrtmann IS, Bauer RT (Eds) Proceedings of the Summer Meeting of the Crustacean Society and the Latin American Association of Carcinology, Costa Rica, July 2013. ZooKeys 457: 211-225. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.457.7380
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Caridean shrimps are a highly diverse group and many species form symbiotic relationships with different marine invertebrates. Periclimenes rathbunae is a brightly colored shrimp that lives predominantly in association with sea anemones. Information about the reproductive ecology of the species is scarce. Therefore, we collected 70 ovigerous females inhabiting the sun sea anemone Stichodactyla helianthus in coral reefs from the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Females produced on average 289 ± 120 embryos. The volume of recently-produced embryos was on average 0.038 mm3, and embryo volume increased by 192% during the incubation period. The average embryo mortality during embryogenesis was 24%. The reproductive output was 0.24 ± 0.094, considerably higher than in many other pontoniine shrimps. Females carrying embryos close to hatching showed fully developed ovaries, suggesting consecutive spawning. We assume that the sheltered habitat, living on sea anemones, allows P. rathbunae to allocate more energy in embryo production than most other free-living caridean shrimps. This is the first record of P. rathbunae for Costa Rica.
Coral reefs, fecundity, new record, reproductive output, symbioses
Caridean shrimps are a highly diverse group within the Decapoda, comprising approximately 3438 currently valid species within 389 genera (
Many studies report on symbiotic relationships between caridean shrimps and other invertebrates, such as sponges, cnidarians, echinoderms, mollusks, crustaceans, and also with fishes (
The highly diverse genus Periclimenes Costa, 1844 comprises approximately 152 species (
Ovigerous females of P. rathbunae were collected during five field trips (September and October 2011, January, June and October 2012) in the Puerto Viejo-Punta Mona coral reef area (
The total length (TL, distance between distal part of the eye socket to the distal margin of the telson excluding setae) and carapace length (CL, distance between distal part of the eye socket to the posterior margin of the carapace) were measured with the aid of Leica MS5 stereoscopic microscope equipped with a calibrated ocular micrometer. Linear regression was performed to test the relationship between TL and CL. The entire embryo mass was removed from females and photographed to count the number of embryos, using IMAGE TOOL version 3.00 developed by UTHSCSA. Here we used the term fecundity as the number of embryos carried by the female (
The stage of embryo development was assigned following the criteria described by
The stage of ovarian development was determined following the criteria proposed by
A total of 70 ovigerous females of P. rathbunae were analyzed; TL of these specimens was directly proportional to CL (CL = 0.1657 × TL + 0.5497; F = 313.21; DF = 69; P < 0.001; R2 = 0.80). Individuals ranged in size from 2.25 to 5.25 mm CL with an average of 3.98 ± 0.77 mm CL. A total of 29 females carried embryos in Stage I, 14 in Stage II, and 27 in Stage III.
The average number of Stage I embryos was 289 ± 120 embryos per female, with a minimum and maximum of 80 and 605, respectively. The number of recently-extruded embryos (Stage I) increased significantly with female size (F = 69.1; DF = 23; P < 0.001; R2 = 0.75) (Fig.
Number of analyzed specimens, mean ± standard deviation of carapace length (CL), embryo number, embryo volume, and brood mass volume according to the stage of embryo development in females of Periclimenes rathbunae from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, 2011–2012.
Stage of embryo development | n | CL (mm) | Embryo number | Embryo volume (mm3) | Brood mass volume (mm3) |
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I | 29 | 4.2 ± 0.6 | 289 ± 120 | 0.038 ± 0.011 | 10.6 ± 4.6 |
II | 14 | 4.3 ± 0.5 | 288 ± 105 | 0.050 ± 0.013 | 15.0 ± 6.8 |
III | 27 | 4.2 ± 0.5 | 219 ± 90 | 0.072 ± 0.022 | 15.1 ± 6.7 |
Recently-produced embryos (Stage I) had an average volume of 0.038 mm3, and those closed to hatching (Stage III) 0.073 mm3 (Table
The average RO for female P. rathbunae was 0.24 ± 0.094, fluctuating between 0.10 and 0.50. There was no significant correlation between RO and CL of females (F = 2.0; DF = 26; P > 0.05; R2 = 0.07) (Fig.
Ovigerous females were collected during all five field trips carried out between September 2011 and October 2012. Early ovarian stages (Stage 1–2) predominated in females carrying recently-extruded embryos (Stage I), while ovaries filled with vitellogenic oocytes (Stage 4) reached its highest occurrence in females with embryos close to hatching (Stage III) (Fig.
This is the first record of P. rathbunae for Costa Rica.
The sea anemone shrimp P. rathbunae produces a relatively high number of offspring when compared to other pontoniine species (Table
Minimum and maximum female carapace length (CL), embryo number in Stage I, mean embryo volume and reproductive output (RO) in Stage I, habitat and study site of seven pontoniine species; NA = no data available; * = total length. ** = Value recalculated by the authors of the present study (see Discussion).
Species | CL (mm) | Embryo number | Embryo volume (mm3) | RO (%) | Habitat | Study site | Reference |
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Periclimenes ornatus Bruce, 1969 | 3.0–6.0 | 10–1000 | 0.49 (0.06**) | NA | Sea anemone | Shikoku Island, Japan |
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Ancylomenes pedersoni (Chace, 1958) Reported as Periclimenes anthophilus |
NA | 33–80 | 0.05 | NA | Sea anemone | Bermuda |
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Ancylomenes pedersoni (Chace, 1958) Reported as Periclimenes pedersoni |
NA | 78–221 | 0.11 | NA | Sea anemone | Bahamas |
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Periclimenes pandionis Holthuis, 1951 | 2.84–4.0 | 67–259 | 0.05 | NA | Coral reef | Indian River, Florida |
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Periclimenes patae Heard & Spotte, 1991 | 3.3–4.2 | 10–35 | NA | NA | Gorgonian | Turks and Caicos and Florida Keys |
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Periclimenes yucatanicus (Ives, 1891) | 3.52–5.73 | 12–333 | NA | NA | Sea anemone | West Indies and south Florida |
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Phycomenes siankaanensis (Martinez-Mayén & Román-Contreras, 2006) | 1.91–3.2 | 23–141 | 0.056 | NA | Sea grass meadow | Quintana Roo, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico |
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Periclimenes rathbunae Schmitt, 1924 | 2.25–5.25 (12.3–22.6*) | 80–605 | 0.038 | 24.0 ± 0.09 | Sea anemone | Limón, Costa Rica | Present study |
The average embryo volume of P. rathbunae is in the range of most values reported for other pontoniine species (Table
Periclimenes rathbunae lost during the incubation period on average 24% of the initially-produced embryos, while embryo volume increased by 192%. Brood loss in P. rathbunae was similar to that reported for other palaemonid freshwater shrimps: approximately 23% in Palaemon pandaliformis (Stimpson, 1871) and Macrobrachium acanthurus (Wiegmann, 1836) (
The RO is a widely used instrument to document and compare inter- and intra-specifically energy allocation in offspring production of decapod crustaceans (
The reduction of the calcification of the exoskeleton results in a minimized dry weight of the decapod species, thus increasing its relative brood weight (
Relatively elevated and stable temperatures in tropical seas may allow year-round reproduction of marine decapods (
In recent years, the pressure on ornamental species has increased, and this includes also decapod species, which are highly popular among aquarium hobbyists (
We would like to thank all volunteers who assisted this study, especially Moisés Pérez and Wagner Cháves. We are very grateful to Raymond Bauer for his recommendations and encouraging comments regarding this study. We are grateful to Raquel Romero who prepared the map of the sampling area. Special thanks go to Arthur Anker who provided photos to facilitate the in situ identification of the shrimp. We are very thankful to Rita Vargas who corroborated the identification of species, and to Carolina Salas for her help to deposit the specimens in the Museo de Zoología of the Universidad de Costa Rica. We sincerely appreciated the valuable comments of two anonymous reviewers, which further improved the quality of the manuscript.