Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2003
The decapodid and first two juvenile stages of the caridean shrimp Campylonotus vagans from the Subantarctic Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) are described and illustrated in detail. The complete larval and early juvenile development of this species from rearings under controlled laboratory conditions were analysed. Zoeal morphology in two stages of an abbreviated development was identical to a description from plankton and hatched larvae of a previous work, and therefore we only compare and discuss slight morphological variations in this study. The first juvenile is large and already resembles some features of adults, lacking all ventral rostral and the fourth dorsal rostral spine only which appears in the following stage, and the second pereiopod not yet being as predominant as in adults. Sexual determination is not yet possible up to the described second juvenile stage. The abbreviated larval development in a Subantarctic shrimp species is discussed as an adaptation to low temperatures and pronounced seasonality.