干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

In the clam shrimp Eulimnadia texana and some other species of desert ephemeral pool-dwelling branchiopod crustaceans, males coexist with hermaphrodites. The hermaphrodites can mate with males or can fertilize their own eggs but cannot mate with other hermaphrodites. Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of this mixed mating system, known as androdioecy, requires a basic knowledge of the reproductive behavior of this species. Here we describe the reproductive cycle of hermaphrodites when isolated and when in the presence of a male. Videos were analyzed to provide a description of egg movement from the ovotestes to the brood chamber. Through time-lapse photography, we determined that paired hermaphrodites carried their brood longer and swam fast for a greater duration than did isolated hermaphrodites. Isolated hermaphrodites dug more preliminary burrows before burying their clutch and had longer inter-clutch intervals than did paired hermaphrodites. These observations suggest that hermaphrodites may behave in ways that maximize the likelihood of mating, and that males may interfere with hermaphrodites during egg laying.