Others possess spines that ward off predators. Some larvae are able to sink or flee in the presence of a hungry mouth. Adults do their part by synchronizing larval release during times of less ...

Zoea larvae don’t resemble their blue crab parents, but rather a tiny, curled crawfish. From the minute they are brought into this world, the crabs are at the mercy of the wind and currents.

Larvae are flushed out of the bay and carried south by currents through estuaries. ... Zoea transform into megalopae after about 40 days. Nor'easters bring them back into the bay.

The orange mass becomes darker as the larvae develop. Eggs hatch into microscopic zoea larvae and are flushed out of the river into the Atlantic where they float freely as zooplankton.

The orange mass becomes darker as the larvae develop. Eggs hatch into microscopic zoea larvae and are flushed out of the river into the Atlantic where they float freely as zooplankton.

After the zoea stage, the larvae transition into the glaucothoe stage and look more like miniature crabs but retain some larval features. After molting out of the glaucothoe stage, the juvenile ...

The crab zoea has javelin-like spines that are longer than its body and the paddle worm, almost transparent to the naked eye, looks like a rowing boat with oars either side.

The pigments in the eye that respond to light also change: they are maximally sensitive to blue light (447 nm) in the planktonic zoea larvae; to blue-green light (479 nm) in the later megalopa ...