Early Developmental Stages of the Green Tiger Prawn, Penaeus semisulcatus de Haan (Crustacea, Decapoda, Penaeidae)

Gravid females of Penaeus semisulcatus were spawned in the laboratory by natural means. The embryos were documented and the larvae were reared from hatching to postlarval stage at 28.2–30.0 °C and 33.5–34.5 g kg⁻¹ salinity for about 10 days (223 h 55 min). Six naupliar stages, three protozoea stages, three mysis stages and the first postlarval stage were described and illustrated. The larvae were fed only with microalgae Tetraselmis tetrathele and Chaetoceros gracilis from first protozoea until the second mysis, with about 90% survival rate; from the third mysis until the first postlarva they were fed with similar microalgae coupled with rotifer Brachionus plicatilis and Artemia nauplii. The embryonic and larval stages of P. semisulcatus are generally similar to those of other closely related species in the family Penaeidae, such as Melicertus canaliculatus, Fenneropenaeus merguiensis, and Marsupenaeus japonicus, except for the size and structure of diagnostic characters, setation of appendages and duration of metamorphoses. The change in the feeding habit during ontogeny was related to morphological transformation of the feeding apparatus of larvae and postlarvae. This paper is the first comprehensive and complete account of the early developmental stages of P. semisulcatus.