Relationships between the sex and degree of maturity of marine crustaceans and their lipid compositions

Abstract

The results of decapod lipid analyses have shown that females and gravid females generally contain high levels of monounsaturated acids and that the eggs of some of these decapods are composed mainly of phospholipid and triglyceride. These are probably present mainly as energy reserves. The percentages of saturated fatty acids are not found to vary with either maturity or sex, whereas the composition of the polyunsaturated acids are affected by both sex and maturity differences. Females are generally much lower in their content of polyunsaturated acids than juveniles and males, the males showing a greater requirement for 20:5 acid compared to the females.For the euphausiids there is a slightly different picture, the monounsaturated acids appear as the stable fraction and forEuphausia krohniithe juveniles are similar to the females in their content of the polyunsaturated acids.Neomysis integeris quite unlike the oceanic crustaceans showing a very specific difference in fatty acid composition between the males and females, the juveniles being rather intermediate in composition.