On the Finding of the Larvae of Oriental Shrimp Palaemon macrodactylus Rathbun, 1902 (Decapoda, Palaemonidae) in the Kerch Strait

摘要

In recent decades, owing to the intensification of invasions of marine aquatic organisms in the Black Sea, the need has arisen for their monitoring in order to predict the consequences for local species and ecosystems. As a rule, most of the invading species are recorded in the recipient area owing to the findings of adult specimens. However, the findings of larval stages may indirectly indicate the presence of an emerging population. The settlement of the oriental shrimpPalaemon macrodactylusM.J. Rathbun, 1902 from Southeast Asia into new regions around the world is well known. In the Black Sea, the species was first recorded in the coastal waters of the western part of the sea in 2002 and 2009 (Romania, Bulgaria). We report on the first findings of larvae of this species, zoea of stages I and III, in the plankton samples taken in the northeastern Black Sea (the Kerch Strait, near the port of Kerch) in four collections for the period from 2017 to 2019. Taking into account the hydrodynamics of the studied water area and the developmental period of the larval stages of this species, it is highly likely that these larvae originate from the local shrimp population.