Female sexual receptivity in the sandy-beach isopodTylos granuliferus(Crustacea)

The reproductive cycle of female Tylos granuliferus was investigated in laboratory conditions. We focused our experiments on female copulative timing for effective insemination and on female sexual receptivity for reproduction. We used females who were isolated from males along with delayed copulation. The female reproductive cycle of T. granuliferus is related to the parturial moult cycle. Females copulate soon after shedding the posterior half of their body cuticle through anterior shedding with a shedding interval of 2 days. Copulation ends just before oviposition. The optimum timing for copulation is within a few days after completion of the parturial moult. Oviposition immediately follows insemination. Without copulation, females do not oviposit their eggs. Pre-copulatory mate guarding by males and sperm storage by females for future broods do not appear to occur in this species. Isolated females have a sexual receptive period of 12 days during the early stages of the reproductive cycle and cannot pr...