First stage: delicate, transparent form with a yellow-brown tinge in the legs; brownish yellow chromatophores on both rami of all pereiopods and maxillipeds, and on the anterior side of the eyes, and a big one at the base of the telson; faint pink tinge at the tip of both pairs of antennae, a little red about the mouth, and a slight tendency to yellow down the ventral surface of both thorax and abdomen; length is about that of a first stage P. danae, namely 6 mm but
the body is much more slender; eyes are, of course, immobile, and their size varies somewhat in proportion to that of the carapace; exopodites of the maxillipeds, used in swimming, are extended laterally; other rami and all the pereiopods are held directly under the body, the third and fourth pereiopods being carried forwards under the middle line of the thorax; incisor process of the right mandible has only one large tooth at the tip and there are two small teeth between this and the molar process; incisor process of the left mandible has three teeth, two fairly large and one small, and there are none between the processes; basipodite of the first maxilla bears nine short, stout spines; proximal expansion of the exopodite of the second maxilla is only slightly developed, and the whole lobe only bears fourteen setae; similarly on the other lobes of this appendage, and on all the remaining appendages there is a general tendency for fewer setae to be present than on the corresponding appendages of P. danae; moreover all appendages posterior to the mandibles are much smaller in proportion
to the body than they are in P. danae; while, on the other hand the two pairs of antennae and the mandibles are slightly larger proportionately in P. hypsinotus. |