Cuticular repair in the mature male snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio (Majidae; Crustacea): relation to ecdysteroids

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Authors: Halcrow, K., Steel, C. G. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1992
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Chionoecetes opilio; Snow crab
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z92-047; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z92-047

Morphometrically mature male snow crabs, Chionoecetes opilio, are not known to molt; they are believed to lack functional Y-organs and hence molting hormones. Small regions of the dorsal surface of crabs were damaged and the ensuing repair of the cuticle was followed by light microscopy at intervals of up to 60 days. Events within the limb base after forced autotomy of a single pereiopod were also investigated and compared with cuticle deposition in limb bases of pereiopods autotomized before the crabs' arrival in the laboratory. Circulating ecdysteroids were assayed by radioimmunoassay at intervals throughout the experiments. New cuticle was deposited in response to all types of injury and in a manner similar to that described previously. New cuticle was deposited across the breakage plane of autotomized limb bases; a complete and substantial layer was present in many of the bases of previously autotomized legs. Neither basal growth nor premolt growth was detected in the base of any autotomized limb. Ecdysteroids were detectable in the hemolymph of most crabs but at low titers, ranging from 6.0 to 11.6 ng/mL.