Description of laboratory-bred first zoea of Callinectes bellicosus Stimpson, 1859 (Crustacea, Portunidae)

So far there are no descriptions of zoea larvae of known species of the genus Callinectes in the Pacific Ocean. Hence, the objective of this study is to describe the first larval stage of C. bellicosus and determine if the features of the zoea 1 stage are like the other species of Portunidae family. Twenty ovigerous females were captured at El Colorado lagoon in the Mexican Pacific, of the northern coast of Sinaloa, during September 2017. Females were transported to the aquaculture laboratory of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN); Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Integral Development (CIIDIR), Unit Sinaloa. The ovigerous females were isolated in tanks with aerated seawater at a salinity of 35 psu, and a temperature of 20.5 ± 1.5°C, until hatching. The zoea were fixed and preserved in 70% ethanol. The first zoea was dissected using glycerine for detailed examination under a stereoscope. In this study we observed that from C. bellicosus the lateral carapace spines were well-developed, the dorsolateral projections were found on the second and third abdominal segments, the abdominal segments 3–5 bore posterior lateral processes, the telson fork had three spines and there was an unarmed endopod middle segment at the first maxilliped, all these correspond to those morphological larval characters of the subfamily Portuninae.