Induced mating and early embryonic development of orange mud crab, Scylla olivacea (Herbst, 1796)

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the mating behavior and success of the commercially important orange mud crab, Scylla olivacea through limb autotomy technique. This technique was applied on five mature females by removing all the walking legs and chelae to shorten the molting process and subsequent mating. After 32.40 ± 15.70 days, all female crabs had successfully molted and entered the post­ molt (soft-shell) stage. The post-molt females were then transferred to the mating tank, the mean precopulation duration was 5.00 ± 5.20 minutes and mean copulation duration was 16.10 ± 3.43 hours.