Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department
SEAFDEC/AQD Institutional Repository http://repository.seafdec.org.ph
Institutional Reports Quarterly Research Reports
1978
Courtship and mating behavior in Penaeus monodon Fabricius
Primavera, Jurgenne
Aquaculture Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center
Primavera, J. H. (1978). Courtship and mating behavior in Penaeus monodon Fabricius.
SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department Quarterly Research Report, 2(2), 6-9.
http://hdl.handle.net/10862/2315
Downloaded from http://repository.seafdec.org.ph, SEAFDEC/AQD's Institutional Repository
Courtship and mating behavior in Penaeus m o n o d o n Fabricius
Jurgenne H. Primavera
Although many studies have been done on the development and anatomy o f the prim ary and secondary sexual characters o f prawns belonging to the genus Penaeus (Andrews, 1911; Hudinaga, 1942; King, 1948; Eldred, 1958;
Tuma, 1967; Liao and Chen, 1969; Perez Farfante, 1975), literature on their courtship and mating behavior is scarce, except fo r observations on P. japonicus (Hudinaga, 1942) and P. stylirostris (Aquacop, 1977). Aside fro m its purely biological value, inform ation on mating behavior may be o f practical use in aquaculture as in the determ ination of area and depth dimensions fo r prawn broodstock tanks. W ith the establishment o f more prawn hatcheries to supply pond stock requirements, particularly in the tropics and subtropics, it is essential that the tanks fo r the maintenance o f brood stock meet the m inim um physical requirements fo r mating.
Courtship and/or mating behavior involving both unablated and unilaterally ablated females w ith unablated males was observed on seven occasions between November 1977 and February 1978. In tw o instances, m olting of female prior to courtship-m ating was also observed or deduced. Males attracted to females were hard-shelled.
A fte r the process of m olting (including d istinct post-molt swimming movements) o f the female, courtship and mating behavior may be observed in three d istin ct phases: ( 1 ) parallel swimming o f male and female from the bottom to a height o f 20-40 cm over distances o f 50-80 cm; (2) male turns ventral side up to female; (c) and male turns perpendicular to female, arches body around the female and flicks head and tail (Figs. 1-3b). Soon the male separates fro m the female and moves or swims away. The female may move away. Progress from central attachm ent (Phase 2) to head and ta il-flicking (Phase 3b) is very quick lasting a few seconds. The whole process from the initial upward swimming movements o f the female to the separation o f the pair after mating may last fro m half an hour to three hours. There was no difference in
Fig. 1 Penaeus m onodon Fab. Female above-male below in parallel swimming (Phase 1).
Fig. 2 Penaeus m onodon Fab. Male turns ventral side up and attaches to female (Phase 2).
Fig. 3a Penaeus m onodon Fab. Male turns perpendicular to female (Phase 3a).
Fig. 3b Male curves body around female and flicks head and tail simultaneously (Phase 3b).
Although most o f the observations to o k place during the day, it is believed that copulation generally takes place at night, fo llow ing m olting o f the female.
O ut o f 452 m olted shells o f P. m onodon females (m ostly unablated) collected fro m broodstock tanks between Dec. 1977 to A p ril 1978, 88.3% were recovered at 0600 hours, having molted at night and in the early morning between 1800 to 0600 hours.
On the basis of thelycum structure and mating pattern, penaeids may be divided into tw o groups — those w ith a closed thelycum in which mating follow s m olting as in P. merguiensis and P. m onodon and those w ith open thelycum wherein mating immediately precedes spawning as in P. stylirostris and P.
vannamei (Tuma, 1967; Aquacop, 1977). Although the closed thelycum of P. japonicus requires that a female molts before she mates, pursuit o f the female by the male is initiated sometime in the late prem olt, shortly before the actual shedding o f the exoskeleton (Hudinaga, 1942).
In P. m onodon, female is follow ed by a male or males only after she has m olted. Mating must involve contact o f the ventral sides o f both male and female fo r the spermatophores released from the term inal ampoules to be inserted into the thelycum between the bases o f the last pair of pereiopods. It is probable that in P. m onodon, release and insertion of the spermatophores take place in rapid succession as the male turns perpendicular to the female, curves his body and flicks both head and tail.
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