The Role of Body Size in Early Mating Behavior in a Simultaneous Hermaphrodite, Chelidonura sandrana

Intraspecific variation in mating behavior is widespread among simultaneous hermaphrodites but its underlying sources remain largely unexplored. In the sea slug Chelidonura sandrana, most matings are reciprocal. However, despite non-conditional sperm exchange and potential polygamy-mediated benefits...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 2009-04, Vol.63 (6), p.953-958
Main Authors: Sprenger, Dennis, Lange, Rolanda, Michiels, Nico K., Anthes, Nils
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal Ecology
Animal reproduction
Animals
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Body size
Body weight
Chelidonura
Female animals
Gender roles
Insemination
Life Sciences
Logistic regression
Male animals
Mating behavior
Mollusks
Original Paper
Size
Spermatozoa
Zoology
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Summary:Intraspecific variation in mating behavior is widespread among simultaneous hermaphrodites but its underlying sources remain largely unexplored. In the sea slug Chelidonura sandrana, most matings are reciprocal. However, despite non-conditional sperm exchange and potential polygamy-mediated benefits, 30% of matings end after unilateral insemination. To resolve this apparent inconsistency, we here investigated the effect of body size on the frequency of reciprocal matings by testing the following two hypotheses. First, sex-allocation theory predicts that the likelihood of reciprocity depends on the size difference between mating partners. Second, if both sex functions temporally differ in reaching maturity, reciprocal matings should be more frequent with increasing absolute body size of the smaller partner. The likelihood of reciprocity increased with body size of the smaller partner. Moreover, smaller individuals acted more often as males among unilateral matings. These findings suggest that the ability to donate sperm develops prior to female functionality in C sandrana.
ISSN:0340-5443
1432-0762
DOI:10.1007/s00265-009-0738-1