| Description of life cycle and mating behavior |
The femora are broader when mature eggs are present in them than an early stage of development. The appearance in the previtellogenic oocytes is followed by a rapid increase in the amount of endoplasmic reticulum in the ooplasm and associated with the Golgi complexes which are responsible for the production of the endoplasmic reticulum network which quickly fills the cytoplasm. The eggs develop over winter (Figure 21), egg development starting in young individuals in July. A few eggs have reached the vitellogenic phase by November and the majority do so after March the following year. The yolk precursors enter the egg in low molecular form though later in vitellogenesis a very limited amount of pinocytosis occurs. When males carry eggs they become covered with algae or encrusting polyzoans such as Electrapilosa (Ref. 12).
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