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Age, Growth Rate, Sexual Dimorphism And Fecundity Of Knobbed Whelk Busycon Carica (Gmelin, 1791) In A Western Mid-Atlantic Lagoon System, Virginia, Micheal Castagna, John H. Kraeuter
Age, Growth Rate, Sexual Dimorphism And Fecundity Of Knobbed Whelk Busycon Carica (Gmelin, 1791) In A Western Mid-Atlantic Lagoon System, Virginia, Micheal Castagna, John H. Kraeuter
VIMS Articles
Growth, onset of sexual maturity, and sexual reversal in laboratory-reared Busycon carica have been examined. Animals first matured at 9 years of age. The first sign of maturity in all animals we reared was the presence of the penis. At 12.4 years of age, one of the animals laid an egg case that did not contain embryos. This animal, and all others, still retained a penis. At 13.5 years, three egg cases were laid and over half the animals had undergone sex reversal (loss of the penis). Field studies have shown that egg strings are laid in the fall on …