INVESTMENT IN EGGS IN LAGOONAL HYDROBIA-VENTROSA AND LIFE-HISTORY STRATEGIES IN NORTH-WEST EUROPEAN HYDROBIA SPECIES

Expected lifetime investment in eggs and related parameters are described for a lagoonal population of Hydrobia ventrosa (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in East Anglia, UK, and these are compared with those of East Anglian lagoonal populations of H. neglecta and both lagoonal and intertidal-marine populations of H. ulvae. In contrast to an earlier study on Danish populations, which suggested that H. neglecta and H. ventrosa are at opposite ends of the hydrobiid spectrum of investment in reproduction, the order of increasing relative allocation of resources to egg production runs H. neglecta = H. ventrosa --> lagoonal H. ulvae --> intertidal-marine H. ulvae. That is, from the two small, short-lived, specialist lagoonal species producing few, large, directly-developing eggs, to the larger, potentially longer-lived H. ulvae that produces many small eggs which develop into veliger larvae. The lagoonal populations of all three Hydrobia species, however, are very similar to each other in terms of reproductive investment. When like cohorts are compared, in each, the annual egg weight is equal to the annual adult growth increment, and the weight of eggs produced per expected lifetime is half the adult growth increment at the time of death. These lagoonal populations are markedly dissimilar to intertidal-marine populations of H. ulvae, which produce an annual weight of eggs some 15 times the annual adult growth increment, and an expected lifetime egg weight some two-and-a-half times the adult growth increment at the time of death.