Topographical Anatomical Studies of the Internal Organs of the Blue Swimmer Crab (Portunus pelagicus) in Conjunction with its External Features
Topographical Anatomical Studies of the Internal Organs of the Blue Swimmer Crab (Portunus pelagicus) in Conjunction with its External Features
Reem R. Tahon, Nora A. Shaker*
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to study morphologically the external features and the anatomical structures of the internal organs of the blue swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus). Twenty-two crabs, both male and female, were collected from the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt. The color of the blue swimmer crab carapace was dark green in males and medium brown with light brown patches in females. The cephalothorax was found to have three pairs of biramous maxillipeds. The pereion was connected to five pairs of uniramous pereiopods, the cheliped, three pairs of walking legs, and the last swimming leg. The abdomen of the male was narrow rostrally with a small telson; while the mature female had a broad triangular abdomen with convex sides and a telson with a small broad base. Male had two pleopods, the first and second gonopods on the ventral surface of the abdomen; while females had several paired biramous pleopods. The gills consisted of paired, triangular masses, and occupied the branchial chamber on each side of the cephalothorax. The female reproductive system consisted of bilateral ovaries, oviducts, seminal receptacles, in addition to single vagina and gonopore, while the male reproductive system consisted of a pair of testes, vas deferens, and gonopods. The stomach was a complex structure whose walls bore calcareous ossicles. It was divided into the cardiac stomach with four ossicles: unpaired mesocardiac, paired pterocardiac, paired lateral zygocardiac, and the unpaired urocardiac ossicle; and the pyloric stomach, which bore three ossicles: unpaired uropyloric, and a pair of exopyloric ossicles.
Keywords | External Anatomy, Stomach, Gills, Gonad, Blue swimmer crab
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