Thursday, December 4, 2008

Life Photo Meme: Inverts




Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Teuthida
Family: Loliginidae

The above is a picture of market squid, Loligo opalescens, eggs. The eggs are laid in capsules by the female in clusters on the bottom of shallow sandy areas. Each egg capsule can hold about 300 eggs, and the female can lay 20-30 capsules in a breeding event. Eggs hatch in 3 to 5 weeks, depending on the water temperatures. The hatchlings, called paralarvae, are about 6mm (1/4 in) in length at hatching.

Here is a cropped part of the above picture, so you can better see the little squids developing in their eggs. They didn't have any pigment yet, and were about 4-6 days from hatching.

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