1. Reproductive biology of the guard coral crab, Trapezia cymodoce (Family Trapeziidae) from Abu Galloum Protected Area, Gulf of Aqaba, South Sinai, Egypt.
- Author
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El-Sayed, Awaad A. M., El-Damhougy, Khaled A., Hellal, Ahmed M., Salem, Mohamed S. A., Nasef, Amr M., and Salem, El-Sayed S.
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BIOMASS , *SEX (Biology) , *FERTILITY , *EMBRYOLOGY ,SEX differences (Biology) - Abstract
The breeding of the guard coral crab, Trapezia cymodoce which lives obligate as symbiotic between branches of hermatypic coral colonies of Stylophora at Abu Galloum Protected Area was treated during the period from March 2011to February 2012. The individuals of this species have clear sexual dimorphism characterized by narrower and elongated male's abdomen, provided with two unequal pairs of uniramus pleopods, compared with semicircular flat and wide female's abdomen has four pairs of biramus pleopods, on segments 2-5. Both males and females attained sexual maturity between 0.4 and 0.5 cm carapace length, and become sexually mature above 0.5 cm carapace length. The overall sex ratio was 1: 0.82 (males to females), with high significant Chi-square (X2 = 3.75, P< 0.05), but has remarkable monthly variations. Ovigerous females were recorded with variable ratios all the year around. Incubated eggs are semi-oval or elliptical, varied in size from 110 to 200mm with an average of 131±38.024 mm for newly laid eggs, increased to 211± 14.02 mm for those at late stages contained complete embryos. Juveniles appeared in March and continued to June, disappeared through July-September, but appeared again from October to the following February. Fecundity varied from 130 to 2925, with an average of 1245±828.68 eggs /female and showed curvilinear relation with carapace length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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