Reproduction and Life History
Differences in sex organs play a major role in mating and determining the difference between two mates is the key to finding out the mating courtship process. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, no such information of the functions of the sex organs have been gathered about the Polygyrid snails. The present studies are from when the specimens are put in boiling water to kill them, which in turn may shrink their anatomical parts, ending in not being able to observe those functions (Webb, 1948). In order to learn more about Daedalochila leporina and it's mating and reproductive ways, I will have to talk about the more ancestral habits of the Class Gastropoda.
Fertilization among gastropods happens externally, and because
of developmental structures internal fertilization can occur
(Solem, 2012).
Differences in mating and how
fertilization occurs depends on habitat, and since
Daedalochila leporina is a land snail, this organism would
undergo internal fertilization
(Solem, 2012). To briefly explain external
fertilization, gametes are released into the water and the
fertilized egg would then hatch into a trochophore, maturing
onto become a veliger and undergoing torsion which is a 180
degree twisting of the body putting the mouth and anus at the
same end which is a characteristic of a gastropods
(Solem, 2012). This
development is indirect, having larval stages, but internal
fertilization is direct having no free-swimming larva but
instead a juvenile (Solem, 2012).
Many gastropods are hermaphroditic, and during mating one
individual would act as a male, and the other a female
(Solem, 2012). The male
would then insert the penis and transfer a gelatinous mass of
sperm into the female completing internal fertilization
(Solem, 2012).