The mystery of the larvae . . .
The larval stage of stomatopods (from when the eggs hatch to when the adults settle onto the reef) is a “black box”—we don't know where larvae go or how long this stage of life lasts. The aquanauts just observed what they could during the Aquarius mission.
At right you see a female stomatopod carefully guarding her pink fluffy mass of eggs. After one to three weeks, the eggs hatch into larvae. Over the next several weeks, the larvae pass through several stages, first in the burrow, and then in the open ocean, growing and molting between each stage. Finally, the larvae leave the open ocean and settle into their adult habitat (coral reef rubble, or sea grass beds). However, for most species, we don’t know how many stages there are, how long each one lasts, or even what the larvae of different species look like! |
Female stomatopod with egg mass |
