Talk:Gastropod reproductive behavior
Dear Ron,
I checked it in Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Netscape. In all three the section starting with "Certain terrestrial snails ...." is properly bulleted.
I like the way it is rewrote the paragraph (point a.). And, I agree that point b. first needs to be re-investigated.
Dear Joris,
Please take another look to see if the bullet problem has been fixed. On my screen, the paragraph beginning "Certain terrestrial snails ...." still has no bullet. (The lay-out seems to be computer/screen dependent.)
a) I agree, therefore I re-wrote the entire end to that paragraph.
b) Worth re-investigating for sure, but worth adding here I doubt it.
Dear Ron,
Yes, I am ready to accept it now and found no further typo's after reading it again. The bulleted section also seems to be fixed now. Two things:
a. One thing that I realised when reading it again: In the "Sperm competition" section you state that "mating order is important" and that "early donations fare better". However, this does not seem to be so clear cut. I have recently reviewed the published P2 values in hermaphrodites and investigated it specifically in Lymnaea stagnalis myself. Most of these are from gastropods, but the general first mate precedence that you suggest here does not emerge clearly (it does of course for the best studies species, Cornu aspersum).
b. The head-wart is very prominent during mating in most Bradybaenidae that I investigated when I was in Japan. I think it would definitely be worth re-investigating this story.
Dear Joris,
Thank you for correcting those too-many typo's. So far as I am concerned, I think the article is now ready for acceptance.
There is one thing, however, that still bothers me. Dr. Izhikevich, please pay attention here. In the section, Bizarre Mating Practices, each paragraph is supposed to begin with a bullet (small filled square). But I am absolutely unable to bullet the paragraph whose first sentence is "Certain terrestrial slugs ...." Evidently, the position of this sentence directly beneath Figure 3 is causing a problem. I tried changing the spacing and several other formating things, but nothing will produce a bullet on this paragraph! If I don't hear from Dr. Izhikevich in response to this message, I'll write to him separately.
Incidentally, I once had a plan to re-investigate the Euhadra pheromone story while visiting Japan. At this point, I don't know ....
Dear Ron,
Glad to hear my input is appreciated. I have picked out a few typographical errors that snuck in during the editing. You will find my responses underneath to your capitalized replies.
Dear Joris,
Evidently, your review is not anonymous! Which is good, because you read the article carefully and offered very constructive corrections and comments. The second reviewer, who remains anonymous, did neither. In fact, he/she left no trace except "accepted". I really do appreciate your input to this article. My responses to your comments are given in context below.
As you may have discovered already, the editing and the processing of these articles can be a bit of a pain in the arse. On the other hand, I appreciate the fact that it IS repeatedly and routinely editable. Therefore, we can continue to dialogue and edit as long as you wish.
Dear Ron Chase,
This is an enjoyable and very useful review on reproductive behaviour of gastropods. I did make some minor changes directly in the text. Besides that, I also have a few other suggestions and points that need some attention. These are listed below.
1. I changed "monogamous" to "gonochoric". As you know, monogamous means having a single mating partner (for life) and I did not understand what you meant with that here. My guess, but correct me if I am wrong, is that you intended to give the technical term for being separate sexed (gonochoric). I APOLOGIZE FOR MAKING THIS STUPID MISTAKE. I REMEMBER BEING CONFUSED, BUT I SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN
2. For clarity, I included that the switching of sexual roles can be either conditional (i.e. a prerequisite for mating at all; e.g. Schmitt et al. 2007) or unconditional (as in Lymnaea stagnalis, see Koene & Ter Maat 2005). DONE, BUT WITHOUT ANY REFERENCES. AS YOU WILL SEE, I HAVE ADDED ONLY A SINGLE REFERENCE TO THE ARTICLE (KOENE & CHIBA), THE REASON BEING THAT I DON'T WANT THE THING TO BECOME A "HEAVY" ACADEMIC REVIEW. RATHER, I WANT IT TO REMAIN ACCESSIBLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. I THINK IT WOULD BE INAPPROPRIATE TO BURDEN THE PIECE WITH TOO MANY REFERENCES. THEREFORE,I TRIED TO LIST ONLY ESSENTIAL ONES AND ONES THAT WILL ALLOW THE READER TO PURSUE MATTERS OF INTEREST. JK: That is absolutely fine with me.
3. In the section “bizarre mating practices” you may already want to introduce love darts. This will also give you the opportunity to include some of the other dart shooting methods that are used, besides stabbing once in Helix aspersa. Evidently, I am here thinking of stabbing repeatedly as found in Bradybaena similaris stimpsoni (Emura 1932, in Japanese), Helminthoglypta spp. (Webb 1942), Euhadra subnimbosa (Koene & Chiba 2006) and Polymita muscarum (Reyes-Tur & Koene, 2007). I ESPECIALLY THANK YOU FOR CALLLING MY ATTENTION TO INADEQUATCIES HERE. AS RECOMMENDED, I ADDED DART SHOOTING TO THE BIZARRE SECTION. I ALSO REORGANIZED THE SECTION TITLES RELATED TO SEXUAL SELECTION ETC., AND EDITED THE PARAGRAPH NOW TITLED "THE FUNCTION OF DART SHOOTING" (IT CONTAINED ERRORS). JK: Great. If you like you can consider adding a link to the Euhadra dart shooting movie: [1] However, I think you do need to have subscription to the journal to access it, so it may not be accessible to everyone.
4. In the “mate finding” section, I feel that something should be included on the pheromone producing head-wart of Euhadra species (e.g. Takeda & Tsuruoka 1979). Mucus trail following could also be mentioned. I'VE EDITED THE APLYSIA PHEROMONE BIT AND ADDED SOMETHING ABOUT MUCUS TRAIL FOLLOWING. I AM RELUCTANT, HOWEVER, TO INCLUDE THE HEAD WART OF EUHADRA FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS: 1) A CAREFUL (BUT NOT RECENT)READING OF THE TAKEDA & TSURUOKA PAPER LEAD ME TO CONCLUDE THAT THE BEHAVIORAL EVIDENCE FOR THE WART FUNCTIONING TO ATTRACT OR EXCITE MATES WAS VERY WEAK. AT BEST, I THOUGHT THEY SHOWED THAT THE WART PRODUCT INCREASES ACTIVITY. 2) SIMILAR MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES ARE FOUND IN THE SAME LOCATION ON MANY SNAIL SPECIES. IN FACT, I PUBLISHED A SHORT PAPER ON THE "WART" OF ACHATINA FULICA (THE VELIGER, 1981). THERE IS LITTLE OR NO EVIDENCE THAT THE STRUCTURES EMIT PHEROMONES IN THESE OTHER SPECIES. 3) THERE HAVE BEEN NO REPORTS BY OTHER AUTHORS CONFIRMING THE CLAIMS OF TAKEDA & TSURUOKA IN RESPECT TO EUHADRA SINCE THEIR PUBLICATION OF 1979. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG IN ANY OF THIS BECAUSE I AM CAPABLE OF CHANGING MY MIND. JK: Okay, it has also been a long time since I read the head-wart stuff. The organ is very prominent in the Euhadra species that I investigated in Japan. However, you may be right that there is very little evidence that a pheromone is emitted by the organ (which might explain why the Takeda & Tsuruoka findings had not been followed up).
5. Note that the induced egg laying in Lymnaea stagnalis by CDC homogenates or CDCH is not completely identical to spontaneous egg laying. The main difference is that the resting phase is skipped in hormonally induced egg laying (Ter Maat et al. 1989). Normally, during the resting phase the egg laying hormones are released by the bursting activity of the CDC neurons. I EDITED THE TEXT TO INSERT APPROPRIATE QUALIFICATIONS.
6. For clarity, I have added the species names, wherever appropriate, when only the genus name was mentioned. Please check whether these are all correct and whether I missed any. Also, you could choose to write out the species name on first mention and afterwards abbreviate the genus name. I'VE CHECKED THIS, GENERALLY FOLLOWING YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND ALSO MAKING SOME CHANGES. REGRETTABLY, BUT NECESSEARILY, I'VE HAD TO EXPLICITLY EQUATE HELIX=CORNU=CANTAREUS, AT LEAST THE FIRST COUPLE OF TIMES.
References used in the above:
Schmitt, V., Anthes, N. & Michiels, N.K. 2007 Mating behaviour in the sea slug Elysia timida (Opisthobranchia, Sacoglossa): hypodermic injection, sperm transfer and balanced reciprocity. Frontiers in Zoology 4:17
Koene, J.M. & Ter Maat, A. 2005. Sex role alternation in the simultaneously hermaphroditic pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis is determined by the availability of seminal fluid. Animal Behaviour 69: 845-850
Emura, S. 1932. Life history of Bradybaena similaris stimpsoni (Pfeiffer). Venus 3: 72-87
Webb, G. R. 1942. Comparative observations on the mating habits of three California landsnails. Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 41: 102-108
Koene, J.M. & Chiba S. 2006. The way of the samurai snail. American Naturalist, 168: 553-555
Reyes-Tur, B. & Koene, J.M. 2007. Use of the dart apparatus by the hermaphroditic land snail Polymita muscarum (Lea, 1834). Animal Biology, 261-266
Takeda, N. & Tsuruoka, H. 1979. A sex pheromone secreting gland in the terrestrial snail, Euhadra peliomphala. J. Exp. Zool. 207: 17-26
Ter Maat, A., Pieneman, A.W., Goldschmeding, J.T., Smelik, W.F.E. & Ferguson, G.P. 1989. Spontaneous and induced egg laying behavior of the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. J. Comp. Physiol. A 164: 673-683
