Spawning season of the smoothtail spiny lobster, Panulirus laevicauda (Latreille), off Ceará State, Brazil

Abstract

This research work was devised to establish the spawning season of the smoothtail spiny lobster, Panulirus laevicauda (Latreille), by means of time linking between gonad development and external indication of sexual maturity. Catch sampling onboard commercial boats operating on fishing grounds in the 10-90 m depth range from January, 1984 through December, 1993 supplied the analysis material which consisted of 13,921 females. There is a relationship in the variation of the gonad stages with the external indicators of breeding, so that P. laevicauda population is supposed to have a multiple brood production and a protracted batch spawning. The most intense spawning activity was defined by a high frequency of mating females in gonad stage IV and with whole spermatophoric mass (ME), and spawning females presenting as with whole spermatophoric mass/ovigerous (ME+OV), with eroded spermatophoric mass/ovigerous (RME+OV) or with eroded spermatophoric mass only (RME). Multiple mating and egg extrusion occur in one same reproductive cycle, with higher frequency in the months from January through April.