Zoea – crabs Begin life as tiny larvae called Zoea.
Megalopae – Zoea moults frequently and grow in weight and size to turn crab like state called megalopae.
Juvenile crab – Most Megalopae grow rapidly to form juvenile crab with a recognizable crab shape and carapace three to six centimetres wide.
Young Adults – The carapace of the juvenile crab keeps growing to reach about nine centimetres to become young adults. They get prepared to breed.
Spawning & berried – The adult female crab spawn in late spring and early summer. Each female produces a huge amount of eggs in a single spawning. The egg go from orange to black as they mature. The term for a female crab carrying egg clusters in this way is ‘berried’. The female incubates the eggs for about 18 days. When the embryos inside are mature she shakes the eggs off. they hatch into zoea. A new life cycle has begun.
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/fact_sheets/fact_sheet_blue_swimmer.pdf
