REPRODUCTIVE ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY OF THE GENUS STROMBUS IN THE CARIBBEAN .1. MALES

Strombid males preferred to mate with spawning females. During copulat ion, the female securely held the verge of the male. An infrequent, bu t consistent observation, was the presence of a second male during cop ulation. Copulation was not the same for these secondary males: the ve rge was not securely attached. In all 6 species, at least one incident of interspecific but otherwise normal copulation was observed, as wel l as incidents of males attempting to copulate with other males alread y engaged in copulation with a female. Male reproductive anatomy was s tudied macro- and microscopically for all Caribbean Strombus species; results were consistent among species and assumed to be applicable to the genus as a whole. Male prostatic tissue is composed of secretory c ells that appear to be modified cuboidal epithelium; the sperm groove consists of ciliated epithelium and goblet cells. Verge morphology var ied among species, but did not interfere with interspecific copulation .