Effect of Morphological Traits on Body Weight in Scapharca Subcrenata (Lischke) at South China Sea

摘要

Identically aged Scapharca subcrenata (Lischke) at south China sea were chosen, with such traits as shell length, shell thickness, shell height, rear shell-closing muscle diameter, number of radial spokes and live body weight measured ( female sample size = 62 , male sample size =59). The path analysis procedure was utilized to investigate the total effect of 5 morphological traits of interest on body weight in Scapharca subcrenata (Lischke) and the total decision coefficient was used as the criterion for the determination of relative importance of the morphological traits. Results showed that shell thickness, shell height and shell length are all positively related to body weight across either gender group ( P <0. 01 ) and moreover not constraints against body weight in both direct and indirect paths. The total coefficients for shell thickness and shell height, on average, amount to 0. 423 , 0.412 respectively, evincing that these two trails are most influential factors on body weight and have relevance to breeding, which tentatively lays theoretical foundation for the formulation of breeding scenario with Scapharca subcrenata( Lischke).