New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Comparative descriptions of some oyster larvae from New Zealand and Chile, and a description of a new genus of oyster, Tiostrea

P. Chanley*

and

P. Dinamani

Fisheries Research Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, P.O. Box 19062, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract Detailed comparisons of the larvae of four species of New Zealand oyster (Saccostrea glomer-ata, Crassostrea gigas, Ostrea lutaria, and a new species of Ostrea) and one Chilean oyster (Ostrea chilensis) showed that larvae of species other than O. lutaria and O. chilensis share certain features. One conspicuous feature is a distinct tract, termed here the posterior dorsal sulcus, which runs from the posterior margin of prodissoconch I to the valve margin of prodissoconch II; other characteristic features are an umbonate, inequivalve shell and a provinculum bearing distinct teeth. The larvae of O. lutaria and O. chilensis, in contrast, lack the posterior dorsal sulcus, are non-umbonate, and have nearly equal valves with an edentulous provinculum. These distinctive features, together with other adult features, suggest that the two species are more appropriately included in a separate genus. The name Tiostrea is proposed for the new genus. Certain supraspecific groupings within the Ostreinae need to be re-examined in the light of breeding experiments.

Keywords oyster larvae; developmental stages; comparative larval morphology; Saccostrea; Crassostrea; Ostrea; Tiostrea new genus.

New Zealand Journal of Marine & Freshwater Research, 1980, 14(2): 103-120
Received 3 December 1979; revision received 30 January 1980 Fisheries Research Division Publication 392

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (5752K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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