A population of Taeniopoda reticulata in the region of Boca del Drago on the island of Isla Colon in the Bocas Del Torro Archipelago of Panama: June 15 – July 31, 2004.
Mating started around the beginning of July, and 39% (27 of 69) of mated males and 46% (26 of 57) of mated females were documented with multiple partners throughout the study period, although this difference was not significantly different (X2=2.0; df=1; p=0.10). Scan samples showed that 31% (351 of 1132) of lubber daily activity was spent in mating behavior.
The ratios of male to female lubbers that were taken progressively throughout the study were 1:1, 0.91:1, and 1.6:1. A greater percentage of the male population had copulated in comparison to the female population (54.8% to 45.2%), but these results were not significantly different (X2=2.3; df=1; p=0.13), and there was no correlation between the sizes of the two members of a mating pair (i.e., larger males with larger females; n=109; r=0.08; p=0.40). However, mated females were significantly larger than unmated females (t=-3.6; n1=69; n2=55; df=121; p=0.001), but there was no size difference between unmated and mated males (t=.79; n1=68; n2=56; df=122; p=0.94). There was also no significant correlation between the date of a copulation and the duration (n=102; r=0.13; p=0.20).
The average duration for field copulations was 281.2 ± 358.9 minutes (n=27; max=1624 minutes; min=2 minutes). The mean duration for captive mating pairs was 548.6 ± 478.3 minutes (n=74; max=2869 minutes; min=56 minutes). The copulations I monitored in captivity were significantly longer than those documented in the field (Mann-Whitney test; n1=23; n2=70; w=519; p≤0.001). There was a weak but insignificant negative correlation between a male’s initial mating time with a female and the number of partners she subsequently had (n=35; r=-0.31; p= 0.07). There was no correlation between female size and duration (n=71; r=0.07; p=0.60), or male size and duration (n=72; r=-0.06; p=0.62).
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