Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Two modes of development in the morphospecies Crepidula dilatata (Gastropoda: Calyptraeidae) from Southern Chile

  • Published:
Marine Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In Chinquihue Bay, a sheltered locality in Southern Chile, female Crepidula dilatata Lamarck brood egg masses which differ in intracapsular development. In some, all eggs develop and are hatched as free veliger larvae (indirect development). In others, only some of the eggs develop and hatch as young adults (direct development), the rest being consumed as nurse eggs. Two possible interpretations are considered: intrapopulation variation of developmental pattern in a species, and the coexistence of two sibling species. Stages of the intracapsular development are described and illustrated. Fecundity varies according to size of the female. For females brooding eggs with indirect development it is estimated at between 3840 and 85575 embryos per spawn; for females with eggs undergoing direct development, embryo production per egg mass is estimated at between 70 and 812. A comparison is made between females brooding the two kinds of egg masses. Minor differences exist in adult coloration, shape of egg capsules, egg diameters, spawning season and their abundance and distribution in the intertidal. Brooding females with eggs displaying indirect development are significantly larger than those with eggs of direct development. The latter females form chains subtidally but not intertidally as do females bearing eggs with indirect development. On these females with pelagic larvae, chains frequently include sedentary males which reach large sizes. On basal females with direct development, chains contain mostly other females, suggesting that matings are temporary and by errant males. These results are compared with existing information in the literature for other species both in this genus and in other marine invertebrates. It is concluded that two sympatric sibling species with different modes of development are present in the morphospecies C. dilatata Lamarck in Southern Chile.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature cited

  • Amio, M.: A comparative embryology of marine gastropods, with ecological considerations. J. Shimonoseki Coll. Fish. 12, 229–358 (1963)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chipperfield, P.N.: The breeding of Crepidula fornicata (L.) in the river Blackwater, Essex. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 30, 49–71 (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  • Clasing, E.: Sobre el hábito alimenticio de 18 especies de moluscos intermareales de Mehuin (Prov. de Valdivia, Chile) en relación a su estructura radular. Seminario curricular Lic. Zoología, Universidad Austral de Chile 1972

  • Coe, W.R.: Sexual phases in Crepidula. J. exp. Zool. 72, 455–477 (1936)

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Influence of association on the sexual phases of gastropods having protandric consecutive sexuality. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole 75, 274–285 (1938)

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Divergent methods of development in morphologically similar species of prosobranch gastropods. J. Morph. 84, 383–399 (1949)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dell, R.K.: The marine Mollusca of the Royal Society Expedition to southern Chile, 1958–59. Rec. Dom. Mus. 7, 155–233 (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Giglioli, M.E.: The egg masses of the Naticidae (Gastropoda). J. Fish. Res. Bd Can. 12, 287–327 (1955)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, H.N.: Studies on sex in the hermaphrodite mollusk Crepidula plana. IV. Internal and external factors influencing growth and sex development. J. exp. Zool. 119, 93–160 (1952)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hendler, G. and D.R. Franz: Population dynamics and life history of Crepidula convexa Say (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) in Delaware Bay. Biol. Bull. mar. biol. Lab., Woods Hole 141, 514–526 (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ishiki, H.: Sex-changes in Japanese slipper limpets, Crepidula aculeata and Crepidula walshi. J. Sci. Hiroshima Univ. (Ser. B, Div. 1) 4, 91–99 (1936)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamarck, J.B.: Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vértebres, Vol. 7. Moll. Paris 1822

  • Marincovich, L.: Intertidal mollusks of Iquique, Chile. Sci. Bull. nat. Hist. Mus. Los. Ang. Cty 16, 1–49 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, E.: Animals species and evolution, 797 pp. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1963

    Google Scholar 

  • Menge, B.A.: Brood or broadcast? The adaptive significance of different reproductive strategies in the two intertidal sea stars Leptasterias hexactis and Pisaster ochraceus. Mar. Biol. 31, 87–100 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mileikovsky, S.A.: Larvae (mainly of Polychaeta and Gastropoda) and spawning ecology of marine bottom invertebrates with pelagic development on the example of Barnets, White and Norwegian Seas and Gulf Stream, 2143 pp. Ph. D. thesis, Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 1965

  • —: Types of larval development in marine bottom invertebrates, their distribution and ecological significance: a re-evaluation. Mar. Biol. 10, 193–213 (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Orton, J.H.: On the occurrence of protandric hermaphoroditism in the mollusc Crepidula fornicata. Proc. R. Soc. (Ser. B) 81, 468–484 (1909)

    Google Scholar 

  • —: The mode of feeding of Crepidula, with an account of the current-producing mechanism in the mantle cavity, and some remarks on the mode of feeding in gastropods and lamellibranchs. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 9, 444–478 (1912)

    Google Scholar 

  • Parodiz, J.J.: Las especies de Crepidula de las costas argentinas. Physis, B. Aires 17, 685–709 (1939)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasmussen, E.: Faunistic and biological notes on marine invertebrates. II. The eggs and larvae of some Danish marine gastropods. Vidensk. Meddr dansk naturh. Foren. 113, 201–249 (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Faunistic and biological notes on marine invertebrates. III. The reproduction and larval development of some polychaetes from the Isefjord, with some faunistic notes. Biol. Meddr 23, 1–84 (1956)

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorson, G.: Reproduction and larval development of Danish marine bottom invertebrates, with special reference to the planktonic larvae in the Sound (Øresund). Meddr Kommn Danm. Fisk.-og Havunders. (Ser. Plankton) 4, 1–529 (1946)

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Reproductive and larval ecology of marine bottom invertebrates. Biol. Rev. 25, 1–45 (1950)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vance, R.R.: On reproductive strategies in marine benthic invertebrates. Am. Nat. 107, 339–352 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner, B.: Über die Anatomie, die Entwicklung und Biologie des Veligers und der Veliconcha von Crepidula fornicata L. (Gastropoda Prosobranchia). Helgoländer wiss. Meeresunters. 5, 169–215 (1955)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Zoologia, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

    C. S. Gallardo

Authors
  1. C. S. Gallardo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Communicated by O. Kinne, Hamburg

Devoted to Dr. E.F. Kilian, Zoologisches Institut der Universität Gießen, FRG.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gallardo, C.S. Two modes of development in the morphospecies Crepidula dilatata (Gastropoda: Calyptraeidae) from Southern Chile. Mar. Biol. 39, 241–251 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390998

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390998

Keywords

Search

Navigation