3. Results
The water temperature, salinity and Z-IETD-FMK values are reported in Table 1. Only temperature showed a seasonal pattern of variation, whereas salinity and pH did not markedly differ during the study.
Table 1.
Seawater temperature, salinity and pH values recorded during the study.
Environmental parameters Sampling dates
Nov. 26, 2010 Feb. 25, 2011 May 27, 2011 Aug. 26, 2011
Temperature (°C) 12.3 8.4 22.9 28.5
Salinity (psu) 29.24 32.26 34.03 34.41
pH 8.06 8.38 8.35 8.14
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3.1. Crab moult stage and morphometric features
An observation of the exopodite tips demonstrated that the crabs used in this study were all in the intermoult stage. Indeed, many setae and chromatophores were visible (Fig. 2A), and the epidermis appeared closely joined to the cuticle without any epidermal retraction (Fig. 2B,C).
Full-size image (57 K)
Fig. 2.
In a view of a tip of a maxilliped exopodite, many setae and chromatophores are visible (A), the cuticle is developed (B), and no epidermal retraction is visible (C).
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After recovering from the anesthesia the
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