ABSTRACT Understanding the reproductive biology of the endangered Epioblasma capsaeformis of the eastern United States is critical to conservation efforts at mussel hatcheries. We studied how males influenced gravidity among females held in captivity. Percent males (0%, 33%, 50%, and 67%) within a holding system was used as the predictor variable. Our response variables were percent females observed gravid, number of eggs and glochidia per gravid female, total eggs (sum of eggs and glochidia) per gravid female, and proportion of total eggs successfully fertilized and developed into glochidia. Mean percent of females gravid in the male treatments were 73%, 85%, 69%, and 60%, respectively, with no evidence that treatments differed significantly from one another. However, the treatment without males had significantly lower mean number of total eggs observed (4,533 vs. 5,868 to 7,330), with fewer viable glochidia (1,354 vs. 5,645 to 6,920). Most of the eggs in the treatment without males were unfertilized at experiment completion (3,179 vs. 206 to 410), with a much lower percentage of transformed glochidia (27% vs. 94 to 97%). Our study documents the important role that males play in fertilizing females for production of glochidia and that key reproductive processes occurred in captivity.

中文翻译：

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濒危淡水贻贝Epioblasma capsaeformis（双壳类：Unionidae）的产卵和繁殖，用于生产glochidia

摘要 了解美国东部濒临灭绝的荚状表皮母细胞的生殖生物学对于贻贝孵化场的保护工作至关重要。我们研究了男性如何影响被囚禁的女性的怀孕。控股系统内的男性百分比（0%、33%、50% 和 67%）用作预测变量。我们的响应变量是观察到的雌性百分比、每个妊娠雌性的卵子和钩体数量、每个妊娠雌性的总卵子（卵和钩体的总和）以及成功受精并发育成钩体的总卵子的比例。男性治疗中女性怀孕的平均百分比分别为 73%、85%、69% 和 60%，没有证据表明治疗之间存在显着差异。然而，没有雄性的处理观察到的总卵数平均数显着降低（4,533 对 5,868 到 7,330），存活的钩虫数量较少（1,354 对 5,645 到 6,920）。在没有雄性的处理中，大多数卵在实验完成时未受精（3,179 对 206 到 410），转化的钩端虫的百分比要低得多（27% 对 94 到 97%）。我们的研究记录了雄性在使雌性受精以产生钩虫方面的重要作用，以及关键的繁殖过程发生在圈养中。