Brachyura larvae
Identification of first zoea of Brachyura

In Table 4 Known larval development the present knowledge of larval development for families of brachyuran crabs from the Southwest Atlantic Ocean is summarized. As mentioned in this chapter before (Page Bl. 1 Introduction, last paragraph: important note), it is important for the reader to realize that because of many unknown larvae, those to be identified may not fit any larvae described in this volume. However, in such cases the keys may help in narrowing the search to higher groups, such as families. It also must be recognized that most of the larval accounts are based on laboratory rearings, and it is still unclear how much variability there is between specimens obtained from the wild and those obtained from culture (Ingle, 1992). Thus definitive identifications should be obtained by consultations with experts in the field.

—Keys to first zoea
The reader should first use the family key at Page 1697: Brachyura larvae: first zoea. Larvae are grouped using a minimum of obvious characters to separate families, so that in almost all cases a dissecting microscope is not necessary for rapid identification. Characters given in the appropriate family tables (see the links to Tables 5-13 at the bottom of this page) can then be used to further identify a specimen to the species level. Once a larva has been identified, we suggest that this be verified using additional details given in the original literature cited. It should be noted that, for practical purposes, the ordering of families does not exactly follow established groupings of adults.

Tables with species characters for first zoea:

Table 5 First zoeae of Dromiidae
Table 6 First zoeae of Majidae
Table 7 First zoeae of Pinnotheridae
Table 8 First zoeae of Belliidae
Table 9 First zoeae of Grapsidae
Table 10 First zoeae of Ocypodidae
Table 11 First zoeae of Xanthidae
Table 12 First zoeae of Calappidae
Table 13 First zoeae of Portunidae