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Mate Recognition in a Simultaneous Hermaphroditic Shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni (Caridea: Hippolytidae)
Male crustaceans must find and identify receptive females in order to mate successfully.
Sex recognition mainly depends on sex pheromones, which are detected by antennae and
antennules. Distance (soluble) pheromone has been well documented to mediate mating behaviors
of some decapod crustaceans. Contact pheromone (an insoluble coating on the body surface) have
been proposed, but never been confirmed, to be used by male decapod crustaceans to detect
females. Here we report for the first time the involvement of both distance and contact
pheromones in the mating processes of a decapod crustacean, Lysmata wurdemanni. Females can
only mate during the small window of the post-molt period, during which they secrete both
distance and contact sex pheromone to attract males. Male shrimp tracked, recognized and
courted the receptive female shrimp based on both distance and contact sex pheromones, but
responded aggressively to newly molted male shrimp. Male shrimp with their chemosensory
appendages ablated appeared unable to identify EP shrimp, and neither courted nor copulated
with them. The outer flagella of the antennules house the receptors of the distance pheromone
whereas both antennae and antennules can detect the contact pheromone. Shrimp can still mate
successfully without the distance pheromone.
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Male crustaceans must find and identify receptive females in order to mate successfully. Sex
recognition mainly depends on sex pheromones, which are detected by antennae and antennules. Distance
(soluble) pheromone has been well documented to mediate mating behavior of some decapod crustaceans.
Contact pheromone (an insoluble coating on the body surface) has been proposed, but never been
confirmed, to be used by male decapod crustaceans to detect females. Here we report for the first time the
involvement of both distance and contact pheromones in the mating processes of a decapod crustacean,
Lysmata wurdemanni, a protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite. Euhermaphrodite-phase (EP) shrimp can
only mate as females during the small window of the post-molt period, during which they secrete both
distance and contact sex pheromones to attract males. Male shrimp tracked, recognized and courted the
receptive EP shrimp based on both distance and contact sex pheromones, but responded aggressively to
newly molted male shrimp. Male shrimp with their chemosensory appendages ablated appeared unable to
identify EP shrimp, and neither courted nor copulated with them. As reported for other decapod crustacean
species, the outer flagella of the antennules house the receptors of the distance pheromone whereas both
antennae and antennules can detect the contact pheromone. Shrimp can still mate successfully without the
distance pheromone. These results suggest that contact pheromone, in addition to distance pheromone, is
involved in mediating the mating behavior of L. wurdemanni. Moreover, it may play a more important role
than distance pheromone in the mating process. Selection of the sex pheromone system of L. wurdemanni
may be driven by social environment.