Sperm transfer and reproductive biology in species of hermaphroditic bivalves (Galeommatoidea: Montacutidae)

Abstract

The histology of the reproductive organs is studied in the protandric hermaphroditic Tellimya ferruginosa. In NW Europe the species reproduces from May through August. Sperm transfer takes place when mature testis follicles are transplanted to the gills or walls of the mantle cavity in recipient hermaphroditic or female bivalves. Transplantation is accompanied by histological changes and sperm cells are released when transplants perish with age. Details are given on the reproduction in Montacuta percompressa which takes place from March through October in North Carolina, USA. All shelled bivalves are females and it is postulated that spermatogenic bodies attached to gills or other surfaces in the female's mantle cavity and previously considered to be dwarf males arise from transplanted larval gonads. The ultrastructure of the euspermatozoa and/or the anucleate paraspermatozoa is described in T. ferruginosa, T. tenella, and M. percompressa. The sperm of the first two species share a number of significant apomorphies with those of another montacutid, Brachiomya stigmatica. In the simultaneous hermaphroditic M. substriata the nucleate paraspermatozoa associate with the euspermatozoa to form spherical spermatozeugmata that are stored in the testis.