Meet the editors

Dr Diarte-Plata is a professor of research with an appointment candidate level in the SNI-CONACYT Mexico. He received his BSc degree in aquaculture at the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico. He has his Masters degree in natural resources and environment from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN CI-IDIR-Sinaloa), Mexico. He is currently a professor at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (since 2006). He is also a researcher

of the Sinaloa System of Researchers and Technologists (SSIT-INAPI Sinaloa). He received his PhD in marine and coastal sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, Mexico. His research topics include investigations in marine, culture and ecology of molluscs and crustaceans. As a professor-researcher within the IPN CIIDIR-Sinaloa, he has participated in 48 research projects, given 11 seminars, 260 presentations at international and national conferences, written 5 book chapters, and 19 indexed articles. He teaches descriptive and multivariate statistics at the undergraduate level, and aquaculture at the postgraduate level. He has been the director of 15 undergraduate theses and 5 Masters and 2 Doctorates from various universities. He is the arbitrator in the revision of manuscripts sent to international journals (ISI-JCR).

Dr Escamilla-Montes received her doctorate in marine and coastal sciences with a specialty in aquaculture. She is an assistant technologist of the Sinaloa System of Researchers and Technologists. Her areas of study are cultivation and ecology of molluscs and crustacean. In the last five years, she has focused on the isolation and characterization of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and bacilli with probiotic potential and pathogenic bacteria such as *Vibrio* 

*parahaemolyticus* and its effect on the growth, survival, and expression of genes of the immune system and stress of marine organisms. She has participated in 11 research projects, as well as presentations at national and international conferences, written 4 books, and 28 articles in ISI Thomson-JCR international journals. She is also the arbitrator in the revision of manuscripts sent to international journals (ISI-JCR).

Contents

**Section 1**

Crustacean

(Molina, 1782) *by Walter Reyes A.*

Marine Isopod

and Belize)

*and Oscar Frausto-Martínez*

*by Imad Mahmood Ghafor*

*by Selvaraj Kumaralingam*

The Robber Crab *Birgus latro* (Linnaeus, 1767)

*by Kari L. Lavalli, Ehud Spanier and Jason S. Goldstein*

Management of the Interaction and Cannibalism of Postlarvae and Adults of the Freshwater Shrimp *Cryphiops caementarius*

Bateman Gradients and Alternative Mating Strategies in a

*by Katharine M. Saunders and Stephen M. Shuster*

Scyllarid Lobster Biology and Ecology

**Preface III**

Biology and Ecology **1**

**Chapter 1 3**

**Chapter 2 21**

**Chapter 3 25**

**Chapter 4 51**

**Chapter 5 65**

**Chapter 6 77**

The Habitat Types of Freshwater Prawns (Palaemonidae: *Macrobrachium*) with Abbreviated Larval Development in Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala

*by Luis M. Mejía-Ortíz, Jesús E. Cupul-Pool, Marilú López-Mejía,* 

*Alfredo G. Baez-Meléndres, Juan C. Tejeda Mazariegos, Jair G. Valladarez, Keith A. Crandall, Marcos Pérez-Losada* 

## Contents


## **Section 2**


Preface

Crustaceans form one of the most successful zoological groups, both for the number of registered living species (67,829) and for the diversity of habitats that they colonize (from the shallow coastline to the deep ocean basins). They are organisms that have various anatomical variations and dimensions ranging from a few millimeters (some copepods) to more than 4 m in length (spider crab). The variety of life strategies has allowed them to adapt to a wide variety of environments, first marine, then freshwater, and finally terrestrial. As for food, there are detritivores,

The importance of crustaceans not only lies at the food level, but they also provide multiple benefits to man: in the commercial field (through the exploitation of different species, which means significant economic income worldwide); in the pharmaceutical, food, and beverage industry; in water treatment; in agriculture; in medicine (chitosan is used, which is extracted from the main component of the shell that forms the body of organisms, chitin); and in the food and dye industry by the use of carotenoids (astaxanthin) extracted from the lobster exoskeleton (*Pleuroncodes planipes*) to give a reddish color to different foods. In the biological aspect, crustaceans are fundamental in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems; with their abundance and diversity they give structure to the macroinvertebrate communities. Because of the position they occupy in the food chains, as secondary consumers, they are responsible for the transformation of organic matter into energy and consumable proteins.

This book is made up of five sections. The first section is about **Biology and Ecology.** The first chapter is *Crustace*an, where aspects of all the animals of the phylum Arthropoda and Subphylum Crustacea are discussed. This group of animals are a very diverse group of invertebrate animals, which includes active animals such as crabs, lobsters, shrimp, krill, copepods, amphipods, and more sessile creatures like barnacles. It includes about 11,340,000 species in all habitats. This constitutes about 83% of all the known animal species on earth. The phylum is characterized by heteronomous metamerism, chitinous exoskeleton, and joined appendages. In very small crustaceans, the exchange of respiratory gases occurs through the general body surface. Large aquatic arthropods respire through gills and book gills, whereas

The chapter entitled *The robber crab Birgus latro (Linnaeus, 1767)* gives us information on the terrestrial hermit crab. It is the largest land-living arthropod in the world. In India, distribution of this crab is restricted to Great Nicobar Island and South Sentinel Island in Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago. This research is focused on aspects of ecology such as habitat, size, eating habits, behavior, life

In the chapter *Scyllarid Lobster Biology and Ecology,* the current available knowledge on the biology of scyllarids is presented. The author attempts to point out where questions remain to help focus further studies on these lobsters, while also mentioning that slipper lobsters are found in tropical and temperate habitats with hard or soft undercarriages and at different depths, and exhibit a wide array

terrestrial forms respire through trachea and book lungs.

cycle, and distribution on the Nicobar Islands, India.

herbivores, omnivores, carnivorous scavengers, and parasites.
