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Functional anatomy of male copulatory organs of Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae)

Zoomorphology volume 132, pages 129–143 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

This study was aimed to investigate the functional morphology of copulation and sperm transfer in the invasive snail Pomacea canaliculata. Three-dimensional renderings of the male copulatory apparatus were made and showed elaborate systems for innervation and for hemolymph supply and drainage. A key component of the male copulatory apparatus is the penial sheath, which shows three specialized glands; the medial and distal glands may participate in adherence to the mantle cavity wall of the female during copulation. The outer gland has an epithelium composed of columnar cells with branched microvilli, mucous goblet cells and large granular secretory cells containing intragranular crystalloids, which produce an exocrine secretion during copulation. The interaction of male/female copulatory organs was studied in dissections of snap-frozen pairs. Sperm are left in the sperm pit, at the end of the pallial spermiduct. Afterwards, the muscular action of the penial bulb takes the sperm up to the vermiform penis, which slides from the penial pouch into the central groove of the penial sheath, and it later emerges through a T-shaped sulcus of this structure and enters the female vagina. Then, it climbs through the capsule duct, and its tip reaches the proximity of the seminal receptacle. A model of copulation and sperm transfer is presented on the basis of the new findings and on published literature.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by grants from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Técnica (FONCyT) of Argentina. Thanks are due for the skillful help with the illustrations provided by S. G. Farías (Medios Audiovisuales y Gráficos-CCT-Mendoza).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Fisiología (IHEM-CONICET), Departamento de Morfología y Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Casilla de Correo 33, 5500, Mendoza, Argentina

    Maximiliano Giraud-Billoud, Carlos Gamarra-Luques & Alfredo Castro-Vazquez

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  1. Maximiliano Giraud-Billoud
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  2. Carlos Gamarra-Luques
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  3. Alfredo Castro-Vazquez
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Correspondence to Maximiliano Giraud-Billoud.

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Communicated by A. Schmidt-Rhaesa.

Electronic supplementary material

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435_2012_183_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 1 3D model of the male penial complex of Pomacea canaliculata. Instructions for viewing 3D image in PDF: In Adobe Reader (recent version recommended) click the image to activate the 3D mode. A variety of tools allows interactive manipulations ranging from free rotating (Rotate or Spin option activated on 3D bar and drag model with mouse), zooming in and out (Zoom option) or moving the model (Pan option) to viewing only selected portions (use Model Tree-check or uncheck objects) or changing surface visualization (Render Mode, Lighting). In addition to the default view some views (names self-explanatory) are prefabricated and available by clicking on them in the middle of the Model Tree interface. (PDF 27931 kb)

435_2012_183_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 2 3D model of the sectors of the haemolymphatic drainage from the penial complex of P. canaliculata. Instructions for viewing 3D image in PDF: In Adobe Reader (recent version recommended) click the image to activate the 3D mode. A variety of tools allows interactive manipulations ranging from free rotating (Rotate or Spin option activated on 3D bar and drag model with mouse), zooming in and out (Zoom option) or moving the model (Pan option) to viewing only selected portions (use Model Tree-check or uncheck objects) or changing surface visualization (Render Mode, Lighting). In addition to the default view some views (names self-explanatory) are prefabricated and available by clicking on them in the middle of the Model Tree interface. (PDF 9343 kb)

435_2012_183_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 3 3D model of the male penial sheath of Pomacea canaliculata. Instructions for viewing 3D image in PDF: In Adobe Reader (recent version recommended) click the image to activate the 3D mode. A variety of tools allows interactive manipulations ranging from free rotating (Rotate or Spin option activated on 3D bar and drag model with mouse), zooming in and out (Zoom option) or moving the model (Pan option) to viewing only selected portions (use Model Tree-check or uncheck objects) or changing surface visualization (Render Mode, Lighting). In addition to the default view some views (names self-explanatory) are prefabricated and available by clicking on them in the middle of the Model Tree interface. (PDF 24316 kb)

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Giraud-Billoud, M., Gamarra-Luques, C. & Castro-Vazquez, A. Functional anatomy of male copulatory organs of Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae). Zoomorphology 132, 129–143 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-012-0183-y

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