The Reproductive Cycle of Golden King Crab Lithodes aequispinus (Anomura: Lithodidae)

Authors: A.J. Paul and J.M. Paul
Pub. no.: RP-02-02
Year: 2001
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Golden king crabs support an important fishery in Alaska. Because of their remote deep habitat, and the fact that only males are taken by the fishery, the reproductive cycle of females had not been described in detail until this laboratory study. The authors found that the time between the first and last egg hatching was 34 days on average. Females molted about 192 days after the last egg hatched, eggs were extruded 2 days after molting, egg clutches were incubated for 362 days, and the time between the production of successive egg clutches was 590 days. Journal of Shellfish Research 20(1):369-371