Departamento de Psicología, University of Oviedo, 33003, Oviedo, Spain.
Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Anim Cogn. 2022 Dec;25(6):1417-1425. doi: 10.1007/s10071-022-01623-7. Epub 2022 May 6.
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.
尽管雌雄同体，但雌雄同体动物在交配时仍可能需要扮演雄性或雌性的性角色，之后可以互换角色。对于大型池塘蜗牛（Lymnaea stagnalis）来说，决定扮演哪种性角色具有重要意义，因为精子转移和雄性生殖成功可能会减少。我们假设，检测到可能的交配暗示可以帮助它们适应交配行为。因此，我们通过实验评估了用气味发出同种信号是否会影响大型池塘蜗牛的性角色。结果表明，与对照组相比，学习可以提高作为雄性进行交配的能力或更快地进行交配。这些发现表明，学习塑造了大型池塘蜗牛的交配动态，这表明认知过程不仅影响雌雄异体物种的交配，也影响雌雄同体。
