JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, 22(3): 532–537, 2002 BEHAVIOR OF JUVENILES OF THE JAPANESE ENDEMIC SPECIES CAMBAROIDES JAPONICUS (DECAPODA: ASTACIDEA: CAMBARIDAE), WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE POSITION OF THE SPERMATOPHORE ATTACHMENT ON ADULT FEMALES Tadashi Kawai and Gerhard Scholtz (TK, corresponding) Hokkaido Nuclear-Energy Environmental Research Center, Miyaoka, 261-1, Kyowa, Hokkaido 045-0123, Japan (kawaita@fishexp.pref.hokkaido.jp); (GS) Humboldt-Universita¨tzuBerlin, Institut fu¨r Biologie/Vergleichende Zoologie, Philippstraße 13, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/22/3/532/2679704 by guest on 02 October 2021 D-10115 Berlin, Germany (
[email protected]) ABSTRACT The behavior of juveniles of the Japanese endemic crayfish Cambaroides japonicus (Decapoda: Cambaridae) was observed in the field and in the laboratory. In addition, the occurrence and placement of spermatophores on adult females is described from specimens inhabiting small brooks at Otaru and Hamamasu, Hokkaido, Japan, sampled from 1998 to 1999. The second stage juveniles left their mother permanently after some exploration behavior. In adult females, spermatophores were attached to the surface of the seminal receptacle (annulus ventralis), which is situated at the posterior margin of the seventh thoracic sternite. In C. japonicus the invagination of the annulus ventralis is not deep enough to hide the male spermatophores. Previous studies of the Astacidae reported that juveniles left their mother at the second stage, that spermatophores were attached to the surfaces of sternal plates of the last three pereopods, and that an annulus ventralis did not exist. In contrast, Cambaridae juveniles normally detach from the mother at the third stage, but they may detach and stay longer with the parent until the fourth stage.