Embryology:

 

Eggs of Ghost shrimp are lecithotrophic, meaning a major component of them is made up of yolk.  Yolky eggs often correlate to a shorter larval development stage; however, surprisingly enough, the hatched egg from N. californiensis goes through 5 larval stages before taking on the final adult body type.  

 

Confounding factors:

 

I have not found any information on the egg development of this particular species, and unfortunately, the eggs remained stunted in growth while the shrimp were in the water table.  One possible cause of this is water temperature of the water table.  If conditions are not ideal, the eggs will discontinue development until the environment becomes more suitable.  

 

Another probable cause is drastic change in environment and water type.  We removed the shrimp from their natural, estuarine, muddy habitat in Moss Landing and relocated them in a water table with intertidal sea water and no mud to burrow.  It is possible that burrowing is a preqrequisite for females to develop their embryos, which could explain why their is not much literature on their embryology and why they did not develop while inside our water tables.

 

Because Ghost shrimp are within the same order as the Lined Shore Crab, I will assume they share a similar embryological development with the Pachygrapsus, which starts as a cell that holoblastically cleaves to form many yolk cells.  These give way to primordial cells, the TELOBLASTS, which are responsible for the growth of the thoracic appendages.