Also, the fecundity of M. rosenbergii ranged
from 24 225 to 191 092 eggs for females of 143–235
mm as reported by Mohapatra (2001). For M. malcolmsonii,
fecundity ranged from 3500 to 94 000
eggs for females of 54–165 mm (Ibrahim 1962;
Rajyalakshmi 1980). Da Silva et al. (2004)
reported the highest number of eggs (2193) for
M. amazonicum. However, Lara and Wehrtmann
(2009) reported that the fecundity increased with
female size of M. carcinus. The same trend was
found for M. lamarrei (Sharma & Subba 2005). In
contrast to the present study, Costa and Wanninayake
(1986) and Rao (1991) reported that in wild
populations of M. rosenbergii from Sri Lanka and
India, smaller females produced a higher number
of eggs per unit body weight. A similar trend has
also been demonstrated in the shrimp Peneaus