Early developmental stage of Pentapycnon charcoti Bouvier

Abstract

The first post hatching stage of Pentapycnon charcoti Bouvier is described for the first time. The eggs and first hatching stage were recovered from a cocoon carried on the ovigerous appendages of an adult male specimen archived in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History. Several different morphologies of the first hatching stage of the family Pycnogonidae have been described by Bain (2003) and Brenneis et al. (2017). The first hatching stage of P. charcoti was analogous to Bain's typical protonymphon and Brenneis' et al. type one protonymphon. This stage displays morphological characteristics of an embryo.

Keywords

• Pentapycnon charcoti Bouvier
• developmental stage
• pycnogonidae