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Development and life history of a nudibranchiate gastropod Cuthona adyarensis Rao

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Relation http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/905/
 
Title Development and life history of a nudibranchiate gastropod Cuthona adyarensis Rao
 
Creator Rao, K Virabhadra
 
Subject Molluscan Fisheries
Marine Biodiversity
 
Description A GENERAL account of the habits, habitat and structure of Cuthona adyarensis, an
aeolidiform nudibranchiate Gastropod of the Family Tergipididae occurring in the
Adyar estuary was given in an earlier paper by the author (Rao, 1952). The present
paper deals with descriptions of the gross structure of the early developmental stages
of the embryos, the larvae and all further stages through which the free-swimming
larvae of Cuthona adyarensis pass to attain the characteristics of the adult for an adaptation
to a creeping mode of life. A very adequate information is available on the
early development up to the formation of veligers in both the cladohepatic and
holohepatic Nudibranchs from the works of Grant (1827), Alder & Hancock (1855),
Reid (1846), Keferstein and Ehlers (1861), Casteel (1904), Rasmussen (1944 & 1951),
Thorson (1946) and Rao & Alagarswamy (1960), but the changes which the larvae
undergo to reach the adult condition are not fully understood. However, among
the earlier workers Nordman (1846) in Tergipes edwardsii and Schultze (1849) in
Tergipes lacinulatus and very recently Thomson (1958) in Adalaria proxima and
Gohar and Abul-Ela (1959) in Discodoris erythraeensis had observed some postlarval
developmental stages of Nudibranchs. The paucity of information on the
subject is due to the reason that under laboratory conditions the larvae soon after
hatching perish in enormous numbers in spite of the best care and attention and even
a few that survive show no signs of further development. In the following account
the methods adopted in obtaining successfully a complete series of developmental
stages in C. adyarensis are described.
 
Publisher MBAI
 
Date 1961
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/905/1/Article_17.pdf
Rao, K Virabhadra (1961) Development and life history of a nudibranchiate gastropod Cuthona adyarensis Rao. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India, 3 (1&2). pp. 186-197.