Slime coating counts in love darts.Snails may strive for fatherhood by throwing darts at their mates. Some snails shoot little calcareous calcareous /cal·car·e·ous/ (kal-kar´e-us) pertaining to or containing lime; chalky. cal·car·e·ous adj. sticks coated with mucus into a partner's skin while mating. These love darts may be more than a gesture of affection, suggest Joris M. Koene and Ronald Chase of McGill University McGill University, at Montreal, Que., Canada; coeducational; chartered 1821, opened 1829. It was named for James McGill, who left a bequest to establish it. Its real development dates from 1855 when John W. Dawson became principal. in Montreal. The slime carries biologically active substances that could boost the sperm's chance of fertilizing eggs, they report in the July 14 Journal Of Experimental Biology. The researchers took extracts of the glands that make the mucus in Helix aspersa and applied them to the female genitalia genitalia /gen·i·ta·lia/ (jen?i-tal´e-ah) [L.] the reproductive organs. ambiguous genitalia of the hermaphroditic her·maph·ro·dite n. 1. An animal or plant exhibiting hermaphroditism. 2. Something that is a combination of disparate or contradictory elements. snails. The gland preparation triggered a temporary reconfiguration of the copulatory copulatory pertaining to or emanating from copulation. copulatory apparatus those parts of the genital organs involved in copulation; the penis, vulva and vagina. Term used in relation to birds where genitalia are concealed. canal that made the sperm's travels easier and closed off a tract leading to a sperm-destroying organ. The extract also made the reproductive path contract faster, speeding the sperm's trip. Effects last at least an hour, Koene and Chase report. The species they studied mates several times before laying eggs. The researchers speculate that mucus injections help the snails compete to become a dad. |
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