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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1417-1425 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Animal Cognition |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 6 May 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 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