Learning to anticipate mate presence shapes individual sex roles in the hermaphroditic pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis

Beatriz Álvarez*, Joris M. Koene, Karen L. Hollis, Ignacio Loy

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Despite being simultaneously male and female, hermaphrodites may still need to assume the male or female sexual role in a mating encounter, with the option to swap roles afterwards. For the great pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, deciding which sexual role to perform has important consequences, since sperm transfer and male reproductive success can be decreased. We hypothesised that detecting cues that indicate a possible mating encounter could help them to adapt their mating behaviour. Therefore, we experimentally assessed whether signalling the presence of a conspecific with an odour can affect the sexual role of Lymnaea stagnalis. The results showed that learning resulted in either an increased ability to mate as a male or in faster mating compared to the control group. These findings reveal that learning shapes the mating dynamics of Lymnaea stagnalis, thus showing that cognitive processes not only affect mating in separate-sexed species but also in hermaphrodites.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1417-1425
    Number of pages9
    JournalAnimal Cognition
    Volume25
    Issue number6
    Early online date6 May 2022
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This research has been conducted at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PSI2011-25071) and by Gobierno del Principado de Asturias (BP-12045). JMK is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). We thank C. Popelier and O. Bellaoui for technical assistance with snail culturing and maintenance. BA is especially grateful to JMK and Lalo Díaz for making it possible.

    Funding Information:
    This research has been conducted at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PSI2011-25071) and by Gobierno del Principado de Asturias (BP-12045). JMK is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). We thank C. Popelier and O. Bellaoui for technical assistance with snail culturing and maintenance. BA is especially grateful to JMK and Lalo Díaz for making it possible.

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2022, The Author(s).

    Keywords

    • Biological function
    • Classical conditioning
    • Conditioned mating
    • Mate choice
    • Mollusc
    • Pavlovian conditioning
    • Pulmonate
    • Sex role conflict
    • Simultaneous hermaphrodite
    • Snail

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