FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 76, NO. 1 



techniques could account for the larger megalopa 

 carapace lengths reported in this paper. 



CONCLUSIONS 



The results of this experiment suggest that a 

 combined diet including at least 5 Artemia 

 nauplii/ml would produce highest survival in the 

 zoeae. Additional food organisms may be required 

 by megalopae. Faster development times as- 

 sociated with diet Ag, compared with Aj, em- 

 phasize the importance of food concentration in 

 addition to food type. 



Limited success of diet ABDE in the zoeal stages 

 implies that Eurytemora affinis subadults may 

 provide some nutritional substance to spider crab 

 larvae. Replication of the copepod diet alone would 

 be required to verify the potential oi Eurytemora. 



Each of the diets permitting development to 

 proceed through metamorphosis resulted in a low 

 percent survival. This could be partially explained 

 by the static dish system used to culture the lar- 

 vae. Flow-through designs would control water 

 quality and perhaps microbial infestations. With 

 an improved culture design, a satisfactory diet, 

 and the short development time, L. emarginata 

 could prove to be a very satisfactory bioassay or- 

 ganism. 



The biochemical content o^ Artemia nauplii may 

 account for their value in the diet of spider crab 

 larvae. As determined by Sulkin ( 1975), A. salina 

 contain 30 total lipid/unit dry weight, a value far 

 superior to that o{ Brachionus plicatilis (9%). A 

 diet of fertilized polychaete (Hydroides dianthus) 

 eggs, containing 20% total lipid, also sustained 

 complete development of Callinectes sapidus in 

 Sulkin's experiments. The lipid content of 

 Eurytemora was not determined. 



Each of the diets tested in this experiment re- 

 sulted in a normal progression of larval develop- 

 ment forL. emarginata (Johns and Lang 1977). No 

 supernumerary stages or characters appeared 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I thank Allan D. Beck, Richard Brooks, Neal 

 Goldberg, D. Michael Johns, William H. Lang, and 



Leslie Mills, all of the Environmental Research 

 Laboratory at Narragansett, for assistance during 

 the course of the experiment. The graph was 

 drawn by Annette Doherty; photographs were 

 completed by James Brennan. The manuscript 

 was typed by Josephine DeVoU. 



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