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Yolk utilization in the gastropod Crepidula fornicata

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Abstract

The increases in constituents per unit weight of eggs during embryonic development of the gastropod Crepidula fornicata amounted to 14.6% for ash, 1.0% for protein, and 0.3% for non-protein nitrogen. During the same stages, fat content decreased from 33.7 to 20.3%, carbohydrate from 10.2 to 7.7% and energy content from 6209 to 5298 cal/g dry organic substance. The cumulative efficiencies for yolk utilization were 83.8% for dry weight, 61.0% for energy, 85.1% for protein, 50.7% for fat, and 63.6% for carbohydrate. A single egg contained 0.0269 cal, a single veliger 0.0164 cal. Of the 0.0105 cal expended on metabolic processes of the embryo, oxidation of fat contributed as much as 65.3%, while that of protein and carbohydrate amounted only to 18.8 and 6.3%, respectively. On the basis of ecophysiological considerations, a new classification of eggs is proposed.

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Author notes

  1. T. J. Pandian

    Present address: Zoology Department, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biologische Anstalt Helgoland (Meeresstation), Helgoland, Germany (FRG)

    T. J. Pandian

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  1. T. J. Pandian
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Communicated by O. Kinne, Hamburg

This paper is based on a lecture presented during the first Convention of the “Indian Association of Biological Sciences” in Madras, December, 1968.

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Pandian, T.J. Yolk utilization in the gastropod Crepidula fornicata . Marine Biology 3, 117–121 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00353430

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00353430

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