Spawning and intracapsular development of Stramonita haemastoma haemastoma (Gastropoda: Muricidae) collected in northern Tunisia

Abstract

Spawning and intracapsular development were studied in a Tunisian population of the rocky marine snail Stramonita haemastoma haemastoma. Spawning in aquaria occurred from late May until mid June. Females deposited between 20 and 86 egg capsules containing 1724–6956 eggs ranging between 60 and 75 µm in diameter. The number of egg capsules was not correlated with female size. However, larger females deposited bigger capsules and with more eggs. In the laboratory, with seawater temperature at 22°C and salinity of 35 psu, intracapsular development took 18 days and produced planktonic larvae without nurse eggs. Under laboratory conditions, hatchlings (41–62 µm in shell length) only survived for 4 days.

Keywords:

• Gastropoda
• intracapsular development
• Muricidae
• Southern Mediterranean
• spawning
• Stramonita haemastoma haemastoma
• Tunisia

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark