Lipid content and composition of the pink shrimp, Pandalus montagui (Leach) (Crustacea: Decapoda)

Samples of pink shrimp, Pandalus montagui (Leach), were taken in winter from the estuary of the River Crouch and Lynn Well in the Wash. Males and ovigerous females (analysed without the eggs) contained 1 to 2% wet wt lipid and females with maturing ovaries between 3 and 6%. Transitional shrimps were starting to develop ovaries and had intermediate lipid contents. The major lipid classes were triacylglycerol, free sterol, and phospholipid. Variations in the total lipid content of males and ovigerous females were due mostly to fluctuations in hepatopancreas triacylglycerol, whereas production of eggs in maturing females necessitated synthesis of both triacylglycerol and phospholipid. The major phospholipids were choline and ethanolamine phosphoglycerides (45 and 35% total lipid P, respectively), both rich in ether lipids. The major egg phospholipid was choline phosphoglyceride (73% total lipid P). Fatty acid composition was typically crustacean and fairly unsaturated, phospholipid fatty acids being more unsaturated than those from triacylglycerol; both fractions from eggs were relatively rich in monoenoic acids compared with those of adult shrimps. Compared with the previously studied polar hippolytid shrimp Chorismus antarcticus, P. montagui contains less muscle phospholipid (and hence less total lipid) and less carotenoid pigment; females produce a larger number of smaller eggs than Chorismus antarcticus, and have a greater annual reproductive effort.