Journal Molluscan Studies Advance Access originally published online on May 26, 2006
Journal of Molluscan Studies 2006 72(3):229-233; doi:10.1093/mollus/eyl006
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Life-history variation in selfing multilocus genotypes of the land slug Deroceras laeve (Pulmonata: Agriolimacidae)
1 Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium; and 2 Department of Invertebrates, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Correspondence: K. Jordaens; e-mail: kurt.jordaens{at}ua.ac.be
The land slug Deroceras laeve shows an enormous variation in life-history traits. Here, we compared several life-history characters (i.e. length of the prereproductive period, growth during the egg-laying period, number of eggs, hatching success) within and among five selfing homozygous multilocus genotypes (MLG) and investigated a possible trade-off between the number of eggs produced during the egg-laying period and growth during the egg-laying period. Life-history traits were highly variable. There was no significant correlation between slug size and fecundity. Slugs that matured early produced more eggs than slugs that matured later. Life-history traits were significantly different among MLGs, suggesting that genetic factors may affect and explain at least part of the variation in life-history traits in D. laeve. Finally, we found no evidence of a trade-off between the number of eggs produced during the egg-laying period and growth during the egg-laying period.
(Received 1 June 2005; accepted 28 October 2005)
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
A. Beeby and L. Richmond Differential growth rates and calcium-allocation strategies in the garden snail Cantareus aspersus J. Mollus. Stud., February 1, 2007; 73(1): 105 - 112. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
