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Life-cycle and reproduction

  • Gonochoric species (i.e. with separated sexes) (Bertin et al. 2002), but the mechanisms of its sex determination are not yet fully understood. No morphologically distinguishable sex chromosome pair has been identified. Both sexes have a karyotype consistings of eight homomorphic chromosome pairs (Salemaa 1979; Valentino et al. 1983; Montalenti and Rocchi 1964).
  • I has been suggested that sex determination results from combined effect of a set of sex determining genes and a maternally inherited cytoplasmic factor (Vitagliano et al. 1994).
  • Exclusively sexual reproduction (Unwin and Stebbing 1920; Ridley and Thompson 1979).
  • Internally insemination (Wilson 1991)
  • Direct development within the brood pouch (Wolff 2009; Vick and Blum ; Martínez and Defeo 2006; Brusca RC 1985)
  • Females produce a variable number of eggs (Arakelova 2001).
  • Large females tend to produce more eggs (Arakelova 2001).
  • Females produce eggs even in the absence of males, which remain unfertilized (Needham 1942; Marchetti and Montalenti 1990).
  • Growth is continuous (Steel 2009) and is dependent on periodic molting (refs)
  • This species has been proposed to be great to study evolutionary changes of segment identity and patterning (Vick and Blum ; Mojaddidi et al. 2018).
  • Like other isopods, molts in two phases (i.e. biphasic molting) by which the posterior and anterior halves of the body molt sequentially (George 1972; Unwin and Stebbing 1920; Marcus 1990; Balian et al. 2008), with an interval of time in between (e.g. about 24 hours in A. aquaticus; Unwin and Stebbing 1920; Marcus 1990)

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