REPRODUCTIVE STATUS, TYPE OF REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGY OF MALES AND FEMALES OF THE CRAB RHITHROPANOPEUS HARRISII (GOULD, 1841) (BRACHYURA: PANOPEIDAE) FROM THE TAMAN BAY OF THE AZOV SEA IN 2011

Analysis of the reproductive status of the Taman Bay Harris crab showed that July was part of its spawning period in 2011, during which females could spawn at least twice. The age of males was up to five years, females – three years. Some reproductive features of the species were obtained for the first time: carapace width of the first maturation of males was 9.8 mm, females – 9.1 mm; gonadosomatic index of mature females amounted to 18% ((12.6 ± 4.8)%), absolute individual fecundity amounted to 414–2 314 mature oocytes with sizes (0,22 ± 0,03) × (0,26 ± 0,04) mm; 65% of females revealed signs of portion spawning, realized fecundity reached 2 805 eggs, sizes of recently laid eggs were (0,25 ± 0,01) × (0,26 ± 0,01) mm; during embryogenesis the size of eggs increased twice.