A new rare case of parental care in decapods

Abstract

Parental and extended parental care are known behaviours in decapod crustaceans (see Thiel, 2000, 2003). Some cases have been documented in brachyuran crabs (i.e., Diesel, 1989, 1997; Diesel & Horst, 1995; Ng et al., 1995), in astacids (Hazlett, 1983; Figler et al., 1997; Johnston & Fiegel, 1997; Vogt & Tolley, 2004), in caridean shrimps (Duffy, 1996), and only one in anomurans (Calado et al., 2006). However, decapods carrying their offspring in body structures during larval development, as in abdominal brood pouches, are exceptional. Thus far, there has only one case been reported, viz., a marine pinnotherid, Tunicotheres moseri (Rathbun, 1918), the larval development of which (two zoeal stages and a megalopa) takes place within a brooding enclosure of the parental female, formed by flexure of the broad abdomen against the sternum (Bolaños et al., 2004). The present work reports a similar case of parental care, the first one in the Caridea, for Dugastella valentina (Ferrer Galdiano, 1924), a freshwater atyid shrimp endemic in the area of the Gulf of Valencia, on the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Sanz & Gómez, 1984; Sanz Santos & Sanz, 1994).