Laboratory observations on spawning, brood size and egg hatchability of the Antarctic krillEuphausia superbafrom Prydz Bay, Antarctica
✍ Scribed by S. A. Harrington; T. Ikeda
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag
- Year
- 1986
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 508 KB
- Volume
- 92
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0025-3162
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Forty-three female Euphausia superba were collected from three sites in Prydz Bay, Antarctica in January 1985. Most gravid females took 3 to 14 d to spawn after capture and some less mature females released eggs after 21 d. Most females spawned only once; overall mean brood size was 2 809 eggs and mean hatchability for eggs from the premoult females was 69.7%. For seven females spawning a second time, overall mean brood size was 597 eggs. Mean hatchability for second-spawn eggs from five premoult females was 67.1%. Possible origins of the secondspawned eggs were small numbers of matured eggs left in the ovaries after the first spawning or eggs developed from those of peripheral nucleolus and vitellogenic stages. Throughout the 8 wk of observations, there was no apparent development of eggs in females which had released all their eggs at one spawning.