The purpose of this report is to assemble information concerning the early stages in the life history of the shrimp, Penaeus setiferus (Linnaeus), which supports the most valuable commercial fishery of the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions of the United States. P. setiferus is an organism of high reproductive potential. A count made by the authors on the ripe ovaries of a female, 172 mm. total length with spermatophore attached, revealed a total of approximately 860,000 eggs. Burkenroad (1934) states that the ovary of a large shrimp may contain 500,000 eggs. Heldt (1938) counted about 800,000 eggs in the ovaries of P. trisulcatus, a European species of similar size and closely related to P. setiferus. It may be expected, therefore, that a female will produce from 500,000 to 1,000,000 eggs in a single spawning.