Owing to larval retention as well as the capability of juveniles and adults to migrate long distances, specimens from this population often spread into neighbouring countries ( Herborg et al. 2003, Drotz et al. 2010, Czerniejewski et al. 2012). Since 1926 adult mitten crabs have been recorded in the southern Baltic Sea ( Peters 1933, 1938), but in larger numbers only in recent decades ( Ojaveer et al. 2007). According to Panning (1939) and Veilleux & Lafontaine (2007) sexually mature specimens can live in fresh
and brackish waters as well as in the sea, but the eggs and larvae of E. sinensis require high Selleckchem Proteasome inhibitor salinities (ca 20 PSU) to develop successfully ( Anger 1991, Montú et al. 1996). On the basis of genetic studies ( Herborg et al. 2007, Ojaveer et al. 2007, Czerniejewski LGK-974 datasheet et al. 2012) it is assumed that this species is probably unable to reproduce in brackish Baltic waters and that the crabs living here are only
an offshoot of the ‘German’ population. On the other hand, several ovigerous females, planktonic larvae and juveniles of the mitten crab were found recently in the western Baltic Sea (Kiel Fjord and neighbourhood), indicating that the completion of the whole reproduction cycle might be possible ( Otto & Brandis 2011). Apart from laboratory experiments on realised fecundity ( Czerniejewski & De Giosa 2013) and a brief mention about egg-carrying females ( Ojaveer et al. 2007), there is no information concerning the reproduction of E. sinensis in the southern Baltic Sea, where the salinity is much lower than in the western Baltic. Here,
we present for the first time data on gonad maturity in E. sinensis females from the coastal waters of the southern Baltic Sea. Ovigerous females as well as the developmental stages of the embryos carried are described. The results provide new information on the reproductive activity of the Chinese mitten crab in the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea. E. sinensis females were collected in the years 2005–2008 (N = 9) and 2012 (N = 13) in the Gulf of Gdańsk and Vistula Lagoon (southern Baltic Sea). The details are given in Table 1. In the laboratory carapace width, length and height were measured with slide calipers (±0.01 mm), after which females were Sirolimus datasheet weighed (± 0.01 g). Then the female gonads where excised and examined under a microscope in regard to the five-scale gonad maturity stages described by Garcia-de-Lomas et al. (2010), where: G1 – no visible oocytes; G2 – oocytes visible on the surface of the gonads; G3 – oocytes forming a compact mass, but are separable from other layers of the gonad; G4 – oocytes forming a soft mass and being easily detachable from the mass; G5 – easily separable eggs, in pleopodal setae of abdomen. In the case of G5 females eggs were extracted after the female had been weighed, after which the female was reweighed without eggs.