Mating and its effect on female reproductive physiology with special reference to the fate of male accessory sex gland secretion in the stomatopod Squilla holoschista

Courtship and mating occur in S. holoschista in the following sequences: (1) antennule contact, (2) spreading of raptorial meri by the male, (3) male moving over the female, (4) grapsing by the male, (5) erection of intromittent organ and thrusting movements by the male, (6) release of the male by the female. In the laboratory such a mating process is found to occur repeatedly. S. holoschista possesses a well defined male accessory gland with a separate duct leading into an intromittent organ. An acrylamide gel electrophoretic investigation on the blood of mated and unmated females indicates the appearance of new proteins in the blood of the mated female; interestingly the protein pattern of the ovary in the mated and unmated female has also shown augmentation of additional protein fractions after mating, suggesting that there may be a translocation of some of the proteins of the accessory gland secretion into the ovary.