Abstract
Two puerulus larvae of the spiny lobster Panulirus longipes were successfully obtained through the rearing of newly hatched phyllosoma larvae fed with diets of Artemia and gonads of the mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, in the laboratory. Their durations of phyllosoma were 281 and 294 days, respectively, at 26.0°C during initial 110 days of rearing and thereafter 24.5°C. The numbers of instars in their phyllosoma phase were estimated at 21 and 23. Based on the morphological features of 55 specimens, the phyllosoma phase of P. longipes was divided into 10 stages. The present study provides a description and illustration for each stage. Body length in stage I was 1.78 mm, an average (n=4), and in stage X it was 34.6 mm (n=1). The present study cannot show the morphological differences between phyllosoma larvae of P. longipes and Panulirus japonicus.
