Multiple limb autotomy can trigger either ovarian growth or somatic growth in the freshwater crab, Paratelphusa...

In female Paratelphusa, there appear to be two alternating dominant physiological tendencies, one biased in favor of reproductive (ovarian) growth and another biased in favor of somatic (regenerative) growth. Multiple limb autotomy (MA), long known to stimulate somatic growth, did so only if the crab was physiologically in the somatic phase. Vitellogenesis was accelerated if the crab was in the reproductive phase at the time of MA. Males and females were found to pass through roughly comparable physiological phases during different seasons of the year. It is not known whether MA has a spermatogenesis-accelerating effect in males, but its effect on somatic growth was dominant while the male was in the somatic phase.