Reproductive strategy of yellow squat lobster (Cervimunida johni Porter, 1903): re-evaluating the maturity criteria 

ABSTRACT

Studying the basic biology of heavily fished marine species is essential to achieving conservation and sustainable exploitation. Yellow squat lobster (Cervimunida johni) is a demersal crustacean with a long fishing history in the Southeast Pacific. However, knowledge of its reproductive biology is still fragmented, and these traits have never been validated at the gonad level. In this context, we assessed the reproductive traits of this species for the first time based on gonadal development using data from a research survey conducted during 2018 off the Chilean coast. A total of 117 and 376 gonads were assessed based on histological and macroscopic analyses, respectively. The functional and effective criteria (a combination of functional and physiological maturity) were used to estimate the maturity ogives. Using a total of 113 females, fecundity (F) and relative fecundity (RF) at length were estimated using the autodiametric method. We determined that females of yellow squat lobster possess group-synchronous ovary development with indeterminate fecundity. Histological analysis revealed that 59% of non-ovigerous females had mature ovaries and were therefore misclassified as immature based on the functional criterion. Similarly, maturity ogives derived from the effective criterion were displaced to smaller sizes and varied significantly from those estimated using the functional criterion (P < 0.05). In addition, the effects of female size on F and RF were significant (P < 0.05). A warning on the use of functional criteria for assessing maturity status is issued, and the importance of adult females on the per capita contribution to population renewal in this crustacean species is discussed .

KEYWORDS:

• Munididae
• oocyte size
• gonadal development
• fecundity
• maturity ogive

Acknowledgements

The present research was financed by the project ‘Evaluación directa de langostino amarillo y langostino colorado entre la II y VIII Regiones, año 2018’, which was tendered by the Instituto de Fomento Pesquero and implemented by staff of ‘Tecnología Pesquera’ (TECPES) of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. R. Wiff was partially funded by the project CONICYT PIA/BASAL FB0002 and by ANID–Programa Iniciativa Científica Milenio Código ICN2019-015. We are sincerely grateful to the on-board scientific observers and technical staff of TECPES-PUCV by their valuable fieldwork. We also thank two anonymous reviewers whose valuable comments and suggestions improved an early version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).