JUVENILE HATCHING AND MATERNAL CARE IN AEGLA URUGUAYANA (ANOMURA, AEGLIDAE)

Ovigerous females of Aegla uruguayana were observed in the laboratory during the egg incubation period, under controlled conditions. Hatching of juveniles was characterized by a high degree of asynchrony and ranged from three to four days for most females. Maternal care of juveniles was also seen. During the first day after hatching, juveniles remained living on the ventral side of the abdomen of females, while during the second and third days they were able to explore the surroundings next to the female body, finally separating from her on the third or fourth day of life. No special structures in juveniles for attaching to females were seen. Both the asynchronous hatching and maternal care in A. uruguayana were in many aspects closer to similar processes observed in freshwater astacoid crayfishes than to the ones observed in other anomurans, being the way in which juveniles of A. uruguayana are linked to their mothers, as well as the absence of moulting while they remain with their mothers, which are similar to processes reported for freshwater brachyuran crabs.