DISTRIBUTION OF THE LARVAE OF PLEURONCODES PLANIPES IN THE CALIFORNIA CURRENT

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Abstract
Zoeae and megalopas of Pleuroncodes planipes Stimpson were found in 483 of 2,546 plankton samples from the California Current in 1957 and 1959. Their distribution in the samples showed that 1) breeding occurred during winter, mostly in February and March; 2) while some breeding could be ascribed to offshore pelagic adults, the greatest larval concentrations were over the continental shelf, often only in the presumed presence of benthic adult populations; 3) breeding extended far to the north of the usual range in the warm years centered around 1959, though it was probably not successful in the extreme north; and 4) there was clear evidence of late zoeae and megalopas being carried offshore in accordance with known geostrophic flow patterns so that at least a high proportion of megalopas had the possibility of changing to the benthic phase only after an excursion into oceanic regions. The data cannot be used to decide whether 5) any of these megalopas do, in fact, achieve a return to the coast or whether 6) any megalopas descend directly into the benthic phase after metamorphosis over the continental shelf.

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