Igor P. Bondarev

Benthos Ecology Department, Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (IBSS), Nakhimov av., 2, Sevastopol, 299011, Russian Federation
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 19   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0019
Received: 26 Feb., 2015    Accepted: 15 Mar., 2015    Published: 25 Mar., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Bondarev, 2015, Sexual differentiation and variations sexual characteristics Rapana venosa (Valenciennes, 1846), International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.5, No.19 1-10 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0019)

For the first time provides photographic images, and discussed a wide range of normal and abnormal colors of gonads Rapana venosa from the Black Sea. It has been shown that some abnormal variants of gonads color are becoming the norm, at least for some contemporary populations of Crimea. The dependence of the change in color gonads with age of the rapa-whelk is shown. Attention is paid to the color variations of the digestive gland and their relationship to the color of gonads. It is assumed that specified color changes are evidence of environmentally caused of the species’ form-generation in the evolution process. The species intersexuality and absence of imposex females in the R. venosa Crimean populations is discussed.

Anomaly; Ecology; Evolution; Gonad color; Sexual differences; Rapana venosa; Imposex females