Mating Behavior in Trichocerca Rotifers

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billporter1456
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Mating Behavior in Trichocerca Rotifers

Post by billporter1456 »

Recently I ran across a rotifer that some have suggested was a Trichocerca. I know only a few rotifers well enough to identify them and had not seen this one before. Then I saw what seemed to be an attack of some sort on one of these rotifers. Almost looked like a small rotifer as the attacker. I am attaching a link to short video to see if you have any ideas on the identity of either the small or larger rotifer and what is happening between them. Many thanks for any help on this.

Since my initial post, I have learned that this is a dwarf male mating with a female. Apparently not often seen.
https://billporter.smugmug.com/Microsco ... -gSMJghW/A
Last edited by billporter1456 on Sat Jul 01, 2017 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Pau
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Post by Pau »

Just a guess, but could it be a male trying to mate?. If so, it will be a very interesting find.
The typical rotifer is a female. Males are only produced in smaller number under certain circumstances, are smaller, differently shaped and shortly living compared to females. A nice case of sexual dimorphism.
Take a look at: http://www.jlimnol.it/index.php/jlimnol ... 5.1306/892 and the video links at the end of the article. You could also try contacting the author.
Pau

billporter1456
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Pau's excellent guess!

Post by billporter1456 »

Pau wrote:Just a guess, but could it be a male trying to mate?. If so, it will be a very interesting find.
The typical rotifer is a female. Males are only produced in smaller number under certain circumstances, are smaller, differently shaped and shortly living compared to females. A nice case of sexual dimorphism.
Take a look at: http://www.jlimnol.it/index.php/jlimnol ... 5.1306/892 and the video links at the end of the article. You could also try contacting the author.
That is an impressive guess! You are correct. I had written Michael Plewka (http://www.plingfactory.de/index.html), an expert on rotifers, and just heard back from him this morning. Michael said, "Congratulations for the documentation of a very rare encounter. The scene from your video shows the mating between the small male (dwarf male) and the bigger female of the rotifer Trichocerca. It seems that until today from most Trichocerca species the males are not known at all. The identification of the Trichocerca species is not so easy. Unfortunately I cannot tell from the video what species it is, but it is definitely Trichocerca."

Michael sent a link for more information about dwarf male rotifers: http://www.plingfactory.de/Science/Atla ... males.html

Michael's email made my morning for sure. And I'm happy to confirm your excellent guess about what was happening in the video. And finally, thanks for the link to the article.

Pau
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Post by Pau »

:D
Pau

carlos.uruguay
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Post by carlos.uruguay »

Wooooowww!!! SUPER!

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Excellent -- a wonderful find & capture!

I suggest editing the title to reflect this new understanding, maybe something like "Rotifers mating -- a rare encounter!"

--Rik

billporter1456
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Post by billporter1456 »

rjlittlefield wrote:Excellent -- a wonderful find & capture!

I suggest editing the title to reflect this new understanding, maybe something like "Rotifers mating -- a rare encounter!"

--Rik
Thanks! Yes, I will definitely re-title it when I put it on YouTube.

billporter1456
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Post by billporter1456 »

rjlittlefield wrote:Excellent -- a wonderful find & capture!

I suggest editing the title to reflect this new understanding, maybe something like "Rotifers mating -- a rare encounter!"

--Rik
Thanks, Carlos! A longer version will be on YouTube within a few days.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

billporter1456 wrote:Thanks! Yes, I will definitely re-title it when I put it on YouTube.
It's also simple to change the title here in the forum. Just edit your initial posting, and change the Subject field.

--Rik

billporter1456
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Post by billporter1456 »

rjlittlefield wrote:
billporter1456 wrote:Thanks! Yes, I will definitely re-title it when I put it on YouTube.
It's also simple to change the title here in the forum. Just edit your initial posting, and change the Subject field.

--Rik
I just changed the title and added a comment in the post to reflect what I now understand about the content of the video. Thanks!

zzffnn
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Post by zzffnn »

Fascinating! Thank you, Bill, for yet another video with story.

billporter1456
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Post by billporter1456 »

Pau wrote: Take a look at: http://www.jlimnol.it/index.php/jlimnol ... 5.1306/892 and the video links at the end of the article. You could also try contacting the author.
I did contact the author, who is in Germany by the way. He was kind enough to write back today and said, regarding the video, "I think at first the male tried it where the plates of the lorica merge and then tried it on the head, where most males copulate." He also sent me a couple of articles on mating behavior in rotifers as pdf files. I could share them if anyone is interested.

So he was trying anywhere he could but penetration in the head area was preferred. Amazing what you can learn on this forum.

billporter1456
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Post by billporter1456 »

zzffnn wrote:Fascinating! Thank you, Bill, for yet another video with story.
Thanks, zzffnn! The story is much improved by contacts with a couple of rotifer experts who confirmed the genus and provided details about mating behavior in rotifers. For example, in some species, pre-copulatory behavior results in actual copulation less than 5% of the time. Pre-copulation in one species lasted from a fraction of a second (a really short first date!) to about a minute. I was lucky enough, in the 9 minutes of video I recorded, I got over 3 minutes of pre-copulatory behavior and, I think, over 3 minutes of copulation. I'm looking forward to making a YouTube video that will run 3-4 minutes.

Jacek
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Post by Jacek »

Very nice

Tom Jones
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Post by Tom Jones »

Nice catch, Bill!! :D

Tom

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