ABSTRACT
Molting, staging and growth in decapod larvae are examined in the light of recent advances in larval development. The confusing plethora of terms occurring in the literature are redefined within two major categories: regular and irregular development. Within these headings are assigned the various ontological concepts of direct, abbreviated, advanced, accelerated, extended, precocious, retrogressive, and dimorphic or poecilogonous development. Aspects of growth within the egg, nauplius, prezoeal, and zoeal (or its equivalent) stages are treated simply using a computer-programmed synthesis derived from Brook’s law. Decapod development is best considered as a continuum extending from hatching as an imago through a series of few to many larval instars, often not assignable to discrete stages owing to vagaries in ecdysis as a consequence of a heterochronic developmental sequence imposed upon an isochronic molting series. Evolutionary implications and consequences are briefly considered in relation to this idea.
