|
|
| In our Puget Sound Beaches unit we compared the
life cycle of the barnacle and the crab. We would
like to know which one molts more often. We found
out that barnacles go from egg to nauplius, have 5
stages to get to the cyprid stage, then continue
to molt inside their plates as adults. Crabs go
from egg to zoea, then have 5 stages to get to be
megalopes, then molt more to become juveniles,
then adults (about 12 molts the first two years,
then 1 time per year after about 3 years. We still
don't really know the answer to our question.
Which one molts more?
|
| Question Date: 2013-05-02 | | Answer 1:
The number of molts for crabs is different for
different kinds of crabs. the dungeness crab
molts 12 times as they develop from juveniles and
then once a year. Blue crabs will molt many times
as they develop from juveniles and then up to 23
times as adults. The king crab will molt about 20
times in its lifetime.
Barnacles don't really molt in the same way
crabs do once they have established on rocks.
They do go through similar molting as they develop
from juveniles but once they are adults, barnacles
do not shed their whole outercoat when molting
like crabs do. Instead, barnacles stick to rocks
and build shell walls around themselves. They
slowly add to the walls around the edges and
joints so the walls slowly get larger.
| | Answer 2:
Which one molts more?
That depends on the barnacle and on the crab,
and on the ages of both. By and large, young
crustaceans have shorter time between molts than
older ones.
Click Here to return to the search form.
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use
|
|
|
