Preference of males for large females causes a partial mating barrier between a large and a small ecotype of Littorina fabalis (W. Turton, 1825)

Saltin, Sara Hintz; Schade, Hanna; Johannesson, Kerstin

doi:10.1093/mollus/eyt003

Cited by 24 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Mating in littorinid snails mainly involves three consecutive steps (Gibson 1965;Erlandsson & Kostylev 1995;Ng et al 2013;Saltin et al 2013): (1) the male follows the mucus trail of the female (2) when he locates the female, the male then mounts the female's shell in an anticlockwise manner, eventually reaching the right-hand side where (3) the male copulates with the female by inserting the penis into the female's mantle cavity (see Video S2). Mate preferences were, therefore, investigated during each of these three steps.…”

Section: Mucus Trail Followingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size‐Dependent Male Mate Preference and its Association with Size‐Assortative Mating in a Mangrove Snail, Littoraria ardouiniana

Williams

2014

Ethology

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In many animals, body size plays a crucial role in mating success in the context of competition and preference for mates. Increasing evidence has shown that male mate preference can be size‐dependent and, therefore, an important driver of size‐assortative mating. To test this theory, mate choice experiments were performed during the three consecutive stages of mating behaviour, namely trail following, shell mounting and copulation, in the dioecious mangrove snail, Littoraria ardouiniana. These experiments identified two possible forms of size‐dependent male mate preference which could contribute to the formation of size‐assortative mating in these snails. Firstly, whereas small males were unselective, large males were selective and preferred to follow mucus trails laid by large females. Alternatively, the results can also be interpreted as all males were selective and adopted a mating strategy of selecting females similar to, or larger than, their own sizes. Both small and large males also copulated for longer with large than with small females, and this was more pronounced in large males. When two males encountered a female, they engaged in physical aggression, with the larger male excluding the smaller male from copulating with the female. This study, therefore, demonstrated that size‐dependent male mate preference may, along with male–male competition, play an important role in driving size‐assortative mating in these mangrove snails, and this may also be the case in other species that exhibit male mate choice.

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Section: Mucus Trail Followingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size‐Dependent Male Mate Preference and its Association with Size‐Assortative Mating in a Mangrove Snail, Littoraria ardouiniana

Williams

2014

Ethology

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“…In some littorinid species, males are able to detect female size from their mucus trails (e.g. Littorina saxatilis, Johannesson et al 2008; Littorina fabalis, Saltin et al 2013;L. ardouiniana, Ng and Williams 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intense competition for mates in these snails is, therefore, anticipated due to the limited time available to find and copulate with a mate. Males are the active sex and follow females' mucus trails to locate and mount them before initiating copulation (Gibson 1965;Erlandsson and Kostylev 1995;Ng et al 2011Ng et al , 2013Saltin et al 2013). Female size is also important, as large females are usually favoured by males because fecundity generally increases with size in these snails (Erlandsson and Johannesson 1994;Zahradnik et al 2008;Ng and Williams 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting for mates: the importance of individual size in mating contests in rocky shore littorinids

Davies

Stafford

et al. 2016

Mar Biol

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they generally challenged defenders that were smaller than themselves, suggesting an ability to detect rival size before entering into a contest in this species. When sizes of the contestants were similar, defenders were more likely to win contests in E. malaccana but not in E. radiata. Evidence for pure self-assessment of RHP and the ability to assess resource value in challengers was found in E. malaccana. Different fighting strategies appear to have evolved in these congeneric marine snail species, and decisions based on male and female sizes play an important role in determining male reproductive success.

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“…Erlandsson and Johannesson ; Saltin et al. ). Size is also under strong divergent selection, as growth rate of the two ecotypes are genetically different (Janson ; Johannesson et al.…”

Section: Will Ecotypes Evolve Into Species?mentioning

confidence: 99%

What can be learnt from a snail?

Johannesson

2015

Evolutionary Applications

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The marine snail Littorina saxatilis is a common inhabitant of intertidal shores of the north Atlantic. It is amazingly polymorphic and forms reproductively isolated ecotypes in microhabitats where crabs are either present and wave action is less furious, or where waves are strong and crabs are absent. Decades of research have unveiled much of the ecological and demographic context of the formation of crab‐ and wave‐ecotype snails showing important phenotypic differences being inherited, differential selection being strong over adjacent microhabitats, local dispersal being restricted, and long‐distance transports of individuals being rare. In addition, strong assortative mating of ecotypes has been shown to include a component of male mate preference based on female size. Several studies support ecotypes being diverged locally and under gene flow in a parallel and highly replicated fashion. The high level of replication at various levels of independence (from local to pan‐European scale) provides excellent opportunities to investigate the detailed mechanisms of microevolution, including the formation of barriers to gene flow. Current investigations benefit from a draft reference genome and an integration of genomic approaches, modelling and experiments to unveil molecular and ecological components of speciation and their interactions.

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Preference of males for large females causes a partial mating barrier between a large and a small ecotype of Littorina fabalis (W. Turton, 1825)

Cited by 24 publications

References 36 publications

Size‐Dependent Male Mate Preference and its Association with Size‐Assortative Mating in a Mangrove Snail, Littoraria ardouiniana

Size‐Dependent Male Mate Preference and its Association with Size‐Assortative Mating in a Mangrove Snail, Littoraria ardouiniana

Fighting for mates: the importance of individual size in mating contests in rocky shore littorinids

What can be learnt from a snail?

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