Reproductive Investment in a Phyletic Giant, the Caribbean King CrabDamithrax spinosissimus: Exploring Egg Production Costs in Large Brooding Marine Inertebrates

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Caribbean king crab Damithrax spinosissimus, a phyletie giant and the largest crab in the western Atlantic, was used to explore the costs of brooding, in terms of reproductive investment, in marine invertebrates. Given (i) the theoretical allometry between gamete production and brooding surfaces and (ii) increased physiological costs with increased brood mass, it was expected that larger broods from larger crabs should suffer higher mortality and brood loss than smaller broods from smaller crabs. It was also expected that smaller females should allocate disproportionably more resources to egg production than larger females. In D. spinosissimus, fecundity in females carrying early and late embryos varied, respectively, between 5.170 and 26.024 eggs/crab (mean ± SD = 16.569 ± 4.899) and between 1.966 and 26.906 eggs/crab (15.147 ± 7.003). In disagreement with expectation, females did not experience brood loss during embryo development. Egg mortality in females carrying early and late eggs varie...