Pair formation in Spongicola japonica (Crustacea: Stenopodidea: Spongicolidae), a shrimp associated with deep-sea hexactinellid sponges
- 1 October 2001
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
- Vol. 81 (5) , 789-797
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s002531540100460x
Abstract
The population structure of the deep-sea sponge-associated shrimp Spongicola japonica was investigated, and the mechanism of pair formation analysed from field samples. The composition pattern of shrimp in host sponges was divided into three patterns by sex and number as follows: solitary, a solitary inhabitant; sexually paired, a pair with a male and a female; grouped, multiple individuals excluding those designated as sexually paired. Juveniles usually remained grouped or solitary in a host cavity until the size at which gonadal maturity starts. Before forming sexual pairs, shrimp appear to have a free-living period outside the host, when the ovarian stages of females correspond to early to late vitellogenesis. Re-invasion is just before the first spawning, when females are in the ovarian stage of late vitellogenesis.Keywords
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