Spawning Behavior and Egg Development of Aplysia kurodai Inhabiting the Coastal Waters of Jeju Island, Korea

This study was investigated spawning behavior, structure of egg masses and egg development in Aplysia kurodai inhabiting the coastal waters of Jeju Island, Korea. The mating and courtship behavior of A. kurodai occurred in the form of unilateral copulating with chain formation. In chain copulation, only the first animal acted as a female; the second and succeeding animals acted as males (sperm donors) to the animals in front and as females to the animals behind. The fertilized eggs were packaged in capsules that are embedded in jelly to form a cylindrical string called an egg masses. The number of capsule per cm of the egg masses was 55 to 60 capsules and each capsule within the egg masses held 15 to 25 eggs. After spawning, the egg masses were bright yellow or orange in color. This egg masses color not changed until embryos developed into trochophore stage. Thereafter, as embryo developed from trochophore stage to veliger stage the egg masses color became brownish. The fertilized eggs were spherical, with a diameter of approximately 80±1 μm at spawning. At 5 to 6 days after spawning, the embryo developed into trochophore stage and began to rotate within the egg capsule. In the trochophore stage, the precursor of the velum, called the prototroch or prevelum, developed. At 10 days after spawning, the prevelum is transformed into the velum, and the trochophore developed into veliger stage. Between 10 to 15 days after spawning, the veligers broke out of the egg capsule, and hatched as free-swimming larvae.