Golden toad led bachelors to attack amplectant pairs and form what has been described as a "writhing masses of toad balls". During the 1977 and 1982 seasons, males outnumbered females by over 8 to 1 at breeding pools. Each toad couple produced 200–400 eggs each week for the six-week mating period, with each egg approximately 3 mm in diameter. The eggs of the golden toad, black and tan spheres, were deposited in small pools often no more than one-inch deep. Tadpoles emerged in a matter of days, but required another four or five weeks for metamorphosis. During this period, they were highly
Crustacean larva (lecithotrophy). In species with normal development, eggs are roughly 1% of the size of the adult; in species with abbreviated development, and therefore more yolk in the eggs, the eggs may reach 1/9 of the adult's size. The post-larva of shrimp is called "parva", after the species "Acanthephyra parva" described by Henri Coutière, but which was later recognised as the larva of "Acanthephyra purpurea". In the marine lobsters, there are three larval stages, all similar in appearance. Freshwater crayfish embryos differ from those of other crustaceans in having 40 ectoteloblast cells, rather than around 19. The larvae show abbreviated development,