Abstract

The reproductive ecology of the purple shell, Rapana venosa was investigated by the histological observations on depositions of the egg capsules, and hatching of larvae in the laboratory and the subtidal zone of the vicinity of piung-do, Chollabud-do, west coast of korea, for one year from June 1992 to May 1993. The results are summarized as follows:1. Rapana venosa is dioecious in sex. The ovary is composed of a number of ovarian lobules, and the testis comprises a number of ovarian lobules, and the testis comprises of gonads could be classified into 4 stages in males and 5 stages in females: 1) growing stage(in female subdivided into 2 stages of early and late growing stage). 2)mature stage. 3)spent stage or copulationstage. 4)rdcovering stage. The early growing stage in females of the purple shell was in September through February, late gorwing stage was in October to March, mature stage was in September to January, mature stage was in September to July, copulation stage was in Februaty to June and recovering stage in April to October.3. Spawning occurred 3-4 times at intervals of 1-3 days, and completed within 10 days from the beginning of spawning during the spawning season of the year.4. From the results of laboratory and field observations, egg masses are composed of a number of egg capsules, egg masses are occurred from May to late August, and in mid August depositions of egg mass in composed of 90-113 egg capsules, fecundity in an egg capsule was ranged 984 to 1,241 eggs(average 1,096 egg). Therefore, fecundity in total egg capsules spawned per individual during the spawning season is estimated as approximately 320,000 to 450,000 egges.5. The incubation period during deposition of an egg capsule to hatching larvad tood 17 days at 18.3-20.4%C(water temperature)and 1.021 (specific gravity fo sea water).