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Science 4 March 1983:
Vol. 219. no. 4588, pp. 1077 - 1078
DOI: 10.1126/science.219.4588.1077
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Articles

Dwarf Males in the Teredinidae (Bivalvia, Pholadacea)

RUTH D. TURNER 1 and YURI YAKOVLEV 2

1 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
2 Laboratory of Physiological Ecology, Institute of Marine Biology, Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Vladivostok 690022

Extreme sexual dimorphism in the Bivalvia is rare. The occurrence of dwarf males in Zachsia appears to be the first case in the Teredinidae and the first outside the Leptonacea. Female Zachsia release straight-hinge larvae that develop in the plankton and settle on living rhizomes of Phyllospadix. Larvae entering mantle pouches of females become males. Evolution of this life history pattern is tied to problems of living in a fragile, patchy habitat—that is, the rhizomes of Phyllospadix.

Submitted on August 19, 1982
Revised on November 9, 1982

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)