Poecilogony in an estuarine opisthobranch: planktotrophy, lecithotrophy, and mixed clutches in a population of the ascoglossan Alderia modesta |
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Authors: | P J Krug |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles 621 Circle Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095-1606, USA Fax: +310 206-3987 e-mail: pkrug@biology.ucla.edu, US |
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Abstract: | A San Diego population of the opisthobranch mollusc Alderia modesta (Lovén, 1844) exhibits poecilogony, the presence of two development modes within a single species. In spring, half of the
adults spawned masses containing ∼300 eggs with a mean diameter of 68 μm. After 3 d, these egg masses hatched planktotrophic
veligers with a maximum shell dimension of 116 μm. The remaining adults spawned masses containing ∼30 eggs with a mean diameter
of 105 μm. These egg masses hatched after 5 to 6 d, releasing lecithotrophic larvae with a maximum shell dimension of 186 μm.
About 1% of field-collected adults produced mixed clutches containing a continuum of larval sizes, spanning the size extremes
of planktotrophy and lecithotrophy and hatching larvae with a mean maximum shell dimension of 152 μm. Adults producing planktotrophic
and lecithotrophic larvae were interfertile, and no hybrid breakdown was observed through the F3 generation. When starved,
adults which previously produced only lecithotrophic larvae switched to producing planktotrophic larvae or mixed clutches
with both planktotrophic and lecithotrophic larvae. Sequence-polymorphisms from a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome
c oxidase I gene support the conclusion that the two reproductive morphs represent a single species. Most of the lecithotrophic
larvae and a small percentage of the larvae from mixed clutches were metamorphically competent within 3 d of hatching. A. modesta is the only molluscan species as yet known to have both planktotrophic and pelagic lecithotrophic development within a single
natural population.
Received: 14 August 1997 / Accepted: 11 April 1998 |
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