Maintenace mechanism and evolution of enantiomorphy in snails

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The purposes of this project was to explore the maintenance mechanism of enantiomorphy and the process of its evolutionary divergence in tree snails, with main focus on the functions and divergence of the traits responsible for the dynamic equilibrium of enantiomorphy. The proximate subjects were to continue long-term surveys of morph frequencies and to evaluate the relative copulation frequencies of the enantiomorphs. We also tested the phylogenetical hypothesis of the evolution of genitalia We discovered the unexpectedly successful copulation between the enantiomorphs the wild It is fist behavioral evidence that negative frequency dependent selection may maintain enantiomorphy. Our molecular phylogeny suggested that enantiomorphy has persisted in the genus Amphidromus for at least one million generations and thus enantiomorphy is evolutionarily stable. lb genital morphology must play a key role for copulation between the enantiomorphs, especially because this groups of tree snails perform copulation in fire-to-face position, which has been expected to interfere interchiral copulation. We found possible correlation between the evolution of enantiomorphy with the divergence of genital morphology and also the necessity of additional factor, to explain the absence and presence of enantiomorphy in subspecies within species that indicate no difference in genitalia.