Mating Behaviour of Sand Crab, Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus)

The mating behavior of P. pelagicus divided into five phases as Pre-Moult Guarding, Moulting, Pre-Copulatory guarding, Mating, Post-Copulatory guarding and Spawning. A hard shelled male stocked with a hard shelled female in experimental setup I. The Pre-moult guarding lasted for 92.66 ± 1.74 hrs. Moulting lasted for 4 ± 0.5 hrs. The Pre-copulatory guarding lasted for 3.66 ± 0.33 hrs. Copulation lasted for 7.33 ± 0.66 hrs. Post-copulatory guarding lasted for 12.83 ± 0.60 hrs. Total mating sequence lasted for 120.48 ± 0.76 hrs. For spawning the female took 17.66 ± 1.45 days. A hard shelled male stocked with a newly moulted female in experimental setup II. The Pre-copulatory guarding lasted for 6.33 ± 1.76hrs. Copulation last for 6.33 ± 1.01hrs. Post-copulatory guarding lasted for 13.33 ± 0.54 hrs. Total mating sequence lasted for 25.99 ± 1.10 hrs. For spawning the female took 17 ± 1.52 days. A hard shelled male was stocked with an eyestalk ablated female in experimental setup III. The Pre-moult guarding lasted for 62.66 ± 7.42 hrs. Moulting last for 3.83 ± 0.44 hrs. The Pre-copulatory guarding lasted for 3.5 ± 0.28 hrs. Copulation lasted for 6.66 ± 0.88 hrs. Post-copulatory guarding lasted for 13.16 ± 0.60 hrs. Total mating sequence lasted for 89.81 ± 1.92 hrs. For spawning the female took 17.33 ± 1.45 days.