Strategic ejaculation in simultaneously hermaphroditic land snails: more sperm into virgin mates

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Satoshi Chiba¹  Kazuki Kimura¹ 

[1] Department of Environmental Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Kawauchi 41, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8576, Japan

关键词: Land snails;    Simultaneous hermaphrodites;    Sperm allocation;    Strategic ejaculation;    Sperm competition;   

Others  :  1084958
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2148-13-264

 received in 2013-07-13, accepted in 2013-11-27,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

It has been theorised that sperm competition promotes the strategic usage of costly sperm. Although sperm competition is thought to be an important driving force of reproductive traits in simultaneous hermaphrodites as well as in species with separate sexes, empirical studies on strategic ejaculation in simultaneous hermaphrodites are scarce.

Results

In the present study, we tested whether the simultaneously hermaphroditic land snail Euhadra quaesita adjusts the number of sperm donated according to the condition of the mate and whether the pattern of strategic ejaculation is in line with previously suggested theories. We found that individuals donated much more sperm when they copulated with a virgin mate than when they copulated with a non-virgin.

Conclusion

The virgin-biased pattern of ejaculation matches the theoretical prediction and suggests that sperm competition significantly influence the reproductive traits of simultaneously hermaphroditic land snails.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Kimura and Chiba; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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