Self-fertilization in the freshwater snails Helisoma duryi and Helisoma trivolvis

Fifty specimens of five strains (10 per strain) of Helisoma duryi from Lima (Peru), St. Croix (Virgin Islands), Formosa (Brazil), Cartago (Costa Rica) and St. Vincent (Lesser Antilles), reared in isolation for about 150 days, laid 103 eggs. The numbers of eggs laid by the 10 specimens of each strain were respectively (viable eggs in parenthesis): 44 (26), 1 (1), 5 (0), 15 (7) and 38 (0). Egg production widely varied between the individuals of each strain, there being in all strains, except St. Vincent, a number of specimens (3 to 9) which did not lay any eggs. After the observation period the isolated specimens, including those that laid no eggs, readily engaged in cross-breeding when mated and brought forth large numbers of eggs. Self-fertilized F1S are fully interfertile, producing normal cross-fertilized offspring. Ten specimens of Helisoma trivolvis (strain from Zempoala, Mexico), also reared in isolation for about 120 days, laid 646 eggs, of which 74 were inviable. Our data, added to those from a few previous studies cited in the text, show that self-fertilization is not so efficient an alternative mode of reproduction in H. duryi as in many other planorbids (it is a little more efficient in H. trivolvis than in H. duryi). Thus, H. duryi benefits much less from functional hermaphroditism which, besides other advantages, enables a single virgin individual to found a new population.